Alight
by AkwardChit
Summary: First person narrative of Prince Erik of Fordane, set in the world of Frozen. As Elsa has the power of ice, he has the power of fire, though his powers manifest themselves in very different ways. How Elsa and Erik interact, whether or not they are separated or are aware of their effects on each other, will hopefully be as much of an adventure for you as it was for me.
1. Part 1, Chapter 1

**Part One - Prequel**

I.

It was time. After so many years, it was finally time. There was no way I'd be in line for the throne in my own kingdom, my brother would make sure of that. Not that I minded. I mean, he'd been training with father since before I was even born; he knew a lot more about leading than I did, and it was probably best for the kingdom. I couldn't doubt for a second that Joakim would be as kind and understanding a king as he was a brother, and he's older anyways, so he could handle all of that responsibility. He always had to be responsible, and smart, and wise.

But that day wasn't about him. That day was about _me_. I had finally come of age, and that day I could finally have an important event of my own. That day, I would have the marriage my brother had almost six years prior. No, that day had nothing to do with my brother. _I_ was getting married!

I woke up from my contemplation to find myself in the men's dressing room, in full royal regalia, and with servants combing my hair and polishing my shoes. I waited as patiently as I can, which wasn't too well, I'll admit; the longer I waited, the more anxious I got, both in the anxiety of fear and that of excitement and anticipation, which both began swirling around inside me.

Then a thought crashed on me: what if marriage isn't what I expected it to be? What if, after creating a fantastic vision of grandeur commensurate to my brother's actual marriage, I found that I wasn't cut out for it – whatever it may be? What if Joakim knew something that I didn't, and in my ignorance I didn't realize that my father made the wrong choice? The fear inside me began burning, and I felt my face heat up.

Then again, what did I have to show for these fears? Nothing – I was basing them off of nothing – they were obviously unsubstantial. I could have a perfectly happy marriage, just like my brother. No, mine would be even better than his, if only because it was my turn to experience what to him was probably stale after six years.

"Erik?" my father interrupted the pyroclastic flow of my thoughts, and thankfully prevented it from rolling over my composure. "It's time, your bride will see you now."

I pulled myself together and walked half-ecstatically and half-cautiously to the door of the dressing room. I followed my father into the grand hall, which was filled to the brim with the random assortment of nobles and royals that I was accustomed to associating with Joakim. Some were fat, some were thin, some were bald, and one had more hair in a beard than the rest did on their heads. In the front were two great golden chairs, each with a streak of rubies running along the side of it. I saw my father nod me onwards, so, as gracefully as I could, I walked over to the closer of the two chairs and took a seat, and began to scan the audience for faces.

Immediately, I saw my brother's face prominently in the front row, with a spot for father on one side and his wife on the other. She wasn't an extremely beautiful woman, nor was she a particularly ugly one. All of her features, and most of her traits were like that: average, and unremarkable. Not with blonde hair, but not very dark hair either; not a crooked nose, but not a very straight one either; not shy, but not very loud either. One could only have explained her connection with Joakim after knowing her caring. If all but one thing about this woman was plain, it was her ability to care. She cared about her husband, his duties, his father, and his brother. She saw me looking at her and smiled at me understandingly, silently saying that it was okay to be nervous. The butterflies in my stomach started warming up again, so I looked the other way.

Past the seat reserved for dad, which he now occupied, was the empty seat always reserved for mom. I don't exactly know what happened, as I was just barely born when she vanished, but Joakim and father always got too upset by the thought of that tragic time, so I never asked. All I remember of her was a warm smile and a warmer embrace.

On the other side of the priest who would marry me sat the other family, from Arendelle. I saw a mother and a sister, and an empty chair next to that, which I had to assume was for the father, the King of Arendelle. Suddenly, I heard a voice to the right and flicked my attention to it.

"But I don't want to! You can't- you can't do this, what if I hurt someone?"

"Calm yourself, Elsa. Panicking won't solve anything. Just keep calm. Besides, you haven't even met him yet, what if you like him and he likes you back?"

"Exactly! What if! I can't marry a guy I haven't even met! What if he hates me or controls me after he finds out! What if he makes me do horrible things to you! To you or mom or Anna!" The room got noticeably chillier, but I was glad that I wasn't the only one who felt noticeably more awkward.

"Elsa, that's enough! You don't think your mother and I just drew a name out of a hat, do you? We looked for someone _you _would like, and would like you back, regardless of what he knows about you. Do you not trust us?"

A heavy, depressed sigh followed. "Okay."

Then the girl walked out, in a formal teal dress, with her blonde hair tied up neatly on her head. She walked regally to the chair beside me, and sat down, folding her gloved hands across her lap. I wanted to get a glance at her face, or at least talk to her, but the priest jumped up so hurriedly when Elsa sat down that any initial amount that I moved or talked would have looked awkward.

But I didn't care. She turned to look at me, at the same time that I turned to her anyways, and we stared at each other. I didn't know what I was doing, whether I was scanning her for flaws or deciding if this counted as love or just awe, and I got the feeling that she was the same way. We didn't pay much attention to what the priest was saying; I just kept staring into her crystalline blue eyes, and her into my swirling brown ones. I felt my core heating up, and felt an energy in her, as if in response. We mindlessly allowed the priest to marry us, and were deaf to the half-hearted hoorays of the audience, who I am sure had no idea whether we were love-struck or immensely confused. To be honest, neither did we.

My brother's hand finally broke the trance. "You doing okay there, Erik? Here let me help you up – and of course you too, Princess Elsa."

"I need to be alone." She spoke quietly but resolutely, something that I had not yet gained the composure to do. I simply sat in my chair, bewildered at what just happened, feeling my face get hot, as Elsa walked away and Joakim got me out of my chair. He could tell there was no way that I could anything for the rest of the night, so he walked me to my room. I plopped onto my bed without coaxing, and quickly fell asleep, my emotions blazing inside me with both the warmth of a campfire and the sting of boiling oil.

*****Author's Note*****

**I wrote this fanfic in a ridiculous frenzy of words in February and March of 2014, and I decided that a year publishing, it was about time I ended this story. I went back and fixed a chapter (God knows I needed to) and cut out the junk at the end that I wrote for no reason, and I'm calling it quits there. I really just want to label this story as complete so I can focus on my other two stories – not Frozen stories, but please check them out if you're interested :) **

**I also put a little bonus bit at the end that I wrote but never really went anywhere. It applies somewhere, probably, but I have no idea where.**

**Anyways, keep reading if you liked the first chapter, but just know that this story was a burst of words. I planned nothing. My other two stories, The Incident and Princess Tournament: Fight to the Death have a lot more thought behind them. Tell me what you think by reviewing; I want to know! **


	2. Part 1, Chapter 2

II.

I gasped awake late the next morning, covered from head to toe in sweat. I sat panting in my bed for a couple minutes while I tried to recall the events of last night. I'm married now, to Princess Elsa of Arendelle. And she either likes me, or…

Joakim knocked on the door. Broken from thought, I asked who it was, even though I knew. Apparently he knew that I knew, and before I knew it he was by my bed.

"Hey, c'mon, sleepyhead," He smiled caringly. "You have a wife to treat to breakfast."

My head cleared up and a smile grew on my face to match his. He was right, what did I have to be worried about? I didn't feel sick in my sweat, just a little warm, but nothing a good shower couldn't fix. Besides, a little food was probably all I needed to make what happened last night make more sense.

I took a quick, hot, refreshing shower in the bathhouse and changed into better clothes before heading down to the dining hall for what I felt was going to have to be a lunch, seeing as it was only a quarter to noon. On my way there, I happened to cross the corridor leading to the rooms in which the guests from Arendelle were staying.

"Are you ready yet? Lunch is starting pretty soon!" I heard a voice say. I assumed it was that of Elsa's sister. I looked around the corner to see her in front of a room door.

"I already told you Anna, I'm not coming. I can't, and you know I can't. I could barely make it through the ceremony yesterday."

"But Elsaaaaaa," Anna pleaded, "You need to come out now, it's not just me anymore!"

"Listen Anna, if I can't come out for my own sister, then what makes you think I even want to come out for a complete stranger that I just met yesterday? Tell everyone that I'm not coming."

Frustrated, Anna turned away from the door, inadvertently spotting me in the process. "Prince Erik! Hey, Prince Erik! Over here!"

I wanted to walk on to the dining hall and pretend not to hear her, but it was too late. "Yes?"

"Come here and talk to Elsa, she's really being stubborn this time. Not to say that she's a stubborn person, she's perfect! For you… and…" Anna blushed uncomfortably. "Just get her to come to lunch, okay?" With that, she walked away, leaving me alone with my wife.

"Elsa?" I spoke softly, not wanting to disturb her as much as her sister had.

"Who is it?"

I paused long enough to make my answer sound strange. "Erik. Prince Erik of Fordane. Your husband."

The temperature dropped a bit, and a puff of wind blew out from under the door. "What about it?"

"We should probably go and eat our first meal together. Get to know each other. You know, we might just be spending quite a while with each other. We – I was hoping you would come with me to the dining hall, and we could have something to eat. If you're ready." Proud of my speech, I waited for a reply.

"Well, I'm not ready."

"When will you be ready? All of Fordane is waiting for you." This wasn't going as well as I'd hoped, and I was getting confused.

"Never. I don't expect you to understand, but I have to stay in here, and when we go home to Arendelle, in my room. For your safety, and for the safety of the people of Arendelle and Fordane." She choked a bit on her words at the end.

By now I was terribly baffled, but I didn't want to make her feel any worse than she sounded. "What if I came in? Then you won't have to leave the room. Besides, someone has to bring you food, don't they?"

"My parents will take care-" Elsa froze mid sentence. A tense pause later, she resumed, "of it. They always do. But if you… No, my parents will take care of it."

I still had no idea what Elsa was talking about, and it was beginning to get to me. I could feel my face getting red, my hands starting to sweat, and my feet getting warm. I wanted to tell her to give me a straight answer immediately, but I held myself back. "Well, I'm sure your parents can take care of you just fine. I still want to meet you, though. Just let me know when you're ready."

And with that I left, to have lunch in the same way that I always had, spare a few guests from Arendelle.


	3. Part 1, Chapter 3

III.

After almost a week without hearing a word from Elsa or speaking a word back, father asked me to help the servants start packing for my move to Arendelle. I was aware that traditionally the princess moves to the prince's kingdom, but father explained that since Elsa was the crown princess of Arendelle, and I wasn't the crown prince of Fordane, I would have to leave. I didn't say anything else about it, nor did he say anything else to me. I had felt so drained that whole week, and I was just happy to finally be numb enough to ignore my desire to talk to her.

Suddenly and sharply, I realized that what for her was a trip back to Arendelle was for me a departure from my home, my family, and everything that I had ever experienced. I was entering a new segment of my life, a segment with a new castle, and a new dining hall, and a new bedroom. The thought of it was overwhelmingly burning; I didn't want to leave home. I wanted to stay in Fordane with Joakim and his wife and father, whether or not I had a partner. But if I move, then I could have one, just not always with me. It would just take a while to get used to that's all.

Then a guard came into my room urgently, without knocking, derailing my train of thought and the ornament I was wrapping. "I have news for Erik, Prince of Fordane."

"What?"

"Princess Elsa has asked to speak with you."

I felt butterflies flare up in my stomach. I was startled; this was not at all what I was expecting. The guard confirmed that Elsa herself had called me. I knew I thought I wanted to talk to her all week, but what if I felt the same feelings as on the day I first talked to her? Even worse, or better, what if I felt like I did on the day of our wedding? A spine-tingling wave of heat ran through my body as I absently nodded yes to the guard and started walking. When I got there, I waited for a while, and then knocked.

"Elsa?"

She didn't respond. I was beginning to feel nervous, so I called again.

"Elsa?"

The door cracked open just a little. "Come in."

Cautiously, I entered the room. I suddenly felt a sharp cold, but warmed back up in a matter of seconds. I gathered the courage to look at her.

Elsa was wearing the same outfit she had on at our wedding. The same dress, the same hairstyle, and the same crystal blue eyes. We stared at each other for a while, until I broke the silence.

"So, you're ready now?"

Elsa winced, just slightly, but responded, "No. I just felt like I needed to talk to you in person." She paused for a while, fidgeting with her gloved hands what looked like an ice cube. Suddenly, she jumped up off of her bed and made for the closet, and slammed the door behind her once inside. "Oh, this was mistake! This was a mistake! Why do you do this, Elsa, why?"

By now, the room became really cold; I could see my breath billowing in black clouds in front of me. But I was determined to talk to this girl, whether or not it had to be through a door.

"You were saying?"

I could hear her trying to pull herself together, and found that I was doing the same. Now that there was a barrier between us, she sounded a lot more comfortable.

"Conceal it, Elsa." She took a deep breath. "I was saying, I need to talk to you before getting on any ship. You must be confused as to why I keep hiding myself from you. I don't just stay away from you, though. I have nothing against you, personally. I can't have anything against you, I hardly know you. I have to stay away from everyone, for their safety." She sounded as cold and fearful and helpless as I have ever heard anyone sound at the same time. I needed to lighten the mood.

"You know what? I think a nice fire should do the trick. Maybe you're just feeling a little cold." I waited for an answer to my invitation.

"No." She said it sharply and with force. It gave me chills; I shuddered, feeling my spine shiver as if I had just fallen into an icy lake. "You obviously don't understand. You can't understand, why did I think you could understand? Just know this: you are technically my husband, and I acknowledge that. You are now technically in line to be King of Arendelle, and I acknowledge that. But you can't come near me. My sister can't come near me, and neither can you. I don't want to hurt you, or anyone else. That's all." Her stress manifested itself in a sigh that swept the room from under the closet door.

I felt empty. I was hoping to form a connection with Elsa, not destroy any chance of having one. I slumped onto the floor, my back against the closet door. I heard Elsa do the same on the other side. I felt myself warming up again; my breath was a series of puffy black clouds, and my hands and feet were tingling with heat. All those times in my life when I looked forward to a marriage as fulfilling as my brother's were resurfacing. I didn't expect this; I didn't want this. But my worst fears were being realized, and I was going to have to deal with them. I was going to have to deal with Elsa.

I wanted her in my life. I wasn't sure if I needed her specifically, though, or just someone with whom I can share anything I wanted to share. I needed someone to talk to. Father was always too busy being King, and for the years Joakim had had a wife, he had spent most of his time – and his shared most of his secrets – with her. My face turned red, and my chest swirled with a flame that felt like heartburn. I needed to let it go, let all of my feelings go, to someone who would listen, and care.

"Are you gone yet?" Elsa's weary voice brought me back to reality.

"No, not yet. Elsa?"

No response.

"Elsa?"

"What?"

"Look, you don't want to talk to me right now. It's okay, I understand. Really. I get it; you need me to leave, not because you want me to, but because you need me to. I can't say I know why you want me out, but I can tell you this much: I trust you."

She held her breath, trying unsuccessfully to cover up a small gasp.

"I trust you. I wish that I could be selfless enough for that to be sufficient reason for me to go. But, as much as I hate to say it, I am selfish. I can't put your feelings before mine, or even your needs before mine, not because I don't care about you, but because I am too selfish. I wish I could be like you, and give up everything I want or need for the sake of others. But I can't; I'm selfish, and I need someone to talk to. I need someone to tell my feelings to, and why I feel them. Could I ask you to make one more sacrifice, and be that person?"

I have no idea how long I waited for a response. I could feel her mulling it over through the door, and thought I heard her sniffle a bit. I just sat silently in my little puddle – not only the puddle of thoughts my mind had become, but also a literal puddle of melted frost that was beginning to dampen my pants. I didn't actually hear her say yes, but I also didn't hear her say no, so I started spilling out my thoughts anyways.


	4. Part 1, Chapter 4

IV.

"When I was little, I would do everything with my brother. I'd wake up at the crack of dawn and then run over to his room, and jump on top of him with a big smile. He would look annoyed, but almost instantly, the same excited smile would appear on his face. After rushing through breakfast we would spend the summer day playing in the garden, dropping frogs on the guards or splashing in the fountain or seeing who could throw a stone the farthest. Inevitably, Joakim would always be called in before lunch to start his studies for the day, and technically I was supposed to study also. But my sessions didn't last nearly as long as his, and I spent most of my time with the tutor daydreaming about what Joakim and I would do the next morning. I would wait in the hallway for Joakim's lessons to end, and then we would go wash up for dinner, where father would always ask us about our day. We would talk for hours, well past the time we actually finished eating, and father would send us to bed when the conversation became more of me yawning than of us talking. I would lie in bed, and would fall asleep to my brother's wild impromptu bedtime stories.

"Those summer months still make me feel like I had a perfect childhood, and sometimes I have to remind myself why I didn't. I was a very sick child, especially in the winter. I wasn't a sickly child, nor was I constantly with a cold. In fact, I never really felt sick in the common sense of the word, but that's what Joakim and my father would tell me; I was sick. As far as I can tell, I just had a constant fever, and got sweaty a lot. But more than anything, when my sickness would break out, I felt hot: my face and my feet and the tips of my fingers would pulse with heat, and my stomach would be a nauseating ordeal I can only describe as a cross between heartburn and gaseousness. I would occasionally go to vomit into the fireplace, like my father always told me to if I felt sick to my stomach, but I don't recall actually ever vomiting. My brother would sit with me next to that hot fireplace, which somehow me feel better even when I felt hot. There were no lessons during the winter, and the garden was always iced over, so Joakim and I spent our whole day in front of that fire, while he comforted me to try and ease my misery.

"The bouts of sickness began to be less severe by the winter of my thirteenth year, and when I was fifteen, I was well enough in February to attend my brother's wedding. After the priest officially married him and his wife, they walked straight to the ballroom and hit it off almost instantly. The whole night, they led every dance, and even after all the guests had left they were still talking. When I woke up the next morning, I found them still talking to each other. They had such an intense chemistry, almost as much as we…" My throat closed up, but though Elsa hadn't said anything, I felt her urging me to go on. I backtracked and cleared my throat, took a deep breath, and picked up again as best I could.

"Well, anyways, that night, the first night after Joakim's marriage, we all sat in the dining hall for a grand dinner to welcome his wife. I don't remember what we were eating, but I know it was just about the most delicious thing I had ever had. Joakim and his wife and my father talked about their views on politics or something like that, and I sat there absently listening to the conversation. And then I sneezed.

"Instantly, the sparks hit the table, which burst into flames just as fast. Joakim's wife screamed, and everyone jumped back hard enough to knock down chairs we weren't even sitting in. My father yelled for a servant, and three came rushing in with buckets of water. The fire hadn't spread too far, and the servants were able to put it out. Joakim's wife stared bewilderedly at me from the other side of the table.

"'What the heck was that?' She yelled frantically, 'Who- How did you-?' Before I got a chance to answer, she had fainted, and father sent me to my room. I could see that he was in no mood to joke around, so I left immediately and solemnly, and sat on my bed in thought when I got there.

"It was good two hours until my father cracked open the door to my room. I looked up at him with teary eyes, and he walked over to my bed and sat down next to me.

"'I told her about your sickness.' he said. I looked at him with sad, depressed eyes.

"'Great. Now she's going to think I'm a freak with a disease that makes me sneeze fire.'

"There was an odd little pause before he started talking again. 'She won't think you're a freak. She's part of the family now, she'll understand. She understands your brother's flaws, and someday you will find a person who will understand you on the same… level as your brother and I do. Now, you should probably sleep.'

"My father got up and got out of my room, leaving his words behind for me to dream about for the next six years. That's why-" I found myself stuck again on that day a week ago. But I had told Elsa that I trusted her, and I didn't want to lie to her, or myself, about that. So I pressed on.

"That's why I was anxious on the day of our wedding. I didn't know whether you would accept me for who I am, or if you would be able to nothing behind the smoke coming out of my mouth. I was worried about whether or not you would give me the true, loving sympathy for my sickness that Joakim's wife gives him for his flaws, or if you would hate me for my bursts of flame. I realize I am telling you the true nature of my sickness, which is supposed to be a secret, and you know why? Like I said, I trust you. I know that I'm not that trustworthy, and that I wouldn't understand the true reason that you have to stay alone. I know that I can't understand you, but I hope that now, at least, you can understand me."

There was a knock on the door.

"Elsa? Come on now, it's time to go." It was her father. I waited for his footsteps to fade away, and then left Elsa's room to gather my things for the boat ride to Arendelle.


	5. Part 1, Chapter 5

V.

The day on the boat was rather uneventful. On the afternoon of my departure, my brother had slipped a small letter into my hand as he, his wife, and my father all wished me safe travels. It didn't seem like too important a note at the time, but it shaped how I would remember my brother and, though he took no part in writing it, my dad, for over three years:

_Erik,_

_ I just wanted to wish you a safe journey. I know you can only keep our blessings in your mind, so I am giving you this paper copy in case your memory fails you. Just kidding- I know you'll be fine in Arendelle, enjoying a new life in a foreign kingdom. Just remember, your sickness is still a secret from everyone, including your wife. If you ever feel ill, just ask to get to a fire; I know I won't be able to comfort you, but I have faith that you can do well on your own._

_I don't want to end this note on a downer, and you haven't been too sick for years now anyways, so I'll leave you with this: enjoy yourself._

_ Be safe,_

_ Joakim_

After reading the note the first time I shoved it into my coat pocket, and went to the room of the boat in which I would remain for the rest of the trip, save mealtimes. The boat arrived at Arendelle on schedule, with no complications or excitement the all the while. When it was announced that the boat had docked, I left my room to get my first glance of my new home.

A large castle, consisting of many sand-colored forms capped in pointed green roofs, dominated the scene. Its fortified walls stood in the foreground, blocking any view of the castle grounds. Farther away, towards the slopes of the mountains, village houses dotted the land, all connected by a road to the marketplace right in front of the castle. The rest of it was just mountains, mountains as tall as you cared to crane your neck to see, and as far as you cared to look, excepting, of course, the river the boat was now in.

The King and Queen personally escorted me to my room, which I should have realized at that point would not be Elsa's room. I had initially thought that the castle was enormous compared to the one in Fordane, but the inside looked the same, but with a different color scheme. They led me through halls and corridors that felt eerily familiar, to a room that looked remarkably like my old room in Fordane; the same thick bed lay in the back left, and the same dresser stood near the door, and it even had the large circular stain on the wall near the ceiling. The Queen told me that I should rest, and that servants would come with my luggage soon. I said something close enough to thank you as they left, and sat on a bed that felt like the bed I had always sat on. It hadn't been very long since we ate lunch, but I sat numb on the bed until dinner was called, and went to bed immediately afterwards.

• • •

The next morning, I was greeted by a brilliant shining sun, a lost sense of direction, and a knock at the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Anna. Elsa's sister." I wasn't expecting that, of all things.

"Okay…"

"Dad- I mean, the King, wanted to know if you'd like a tour of castle. You know, if you want. And if you want me to give it to you, if you want."

Anna's knock made more sense now, and I took her offer. It wasn't like I had anything better to do; my new tutor wouldn't be meeting me for several weeks, and as a new arrival, I had no business to take care of.

"Sure, just let me get dressed first, okay?"

I made myself presentable and stepped outside of my room, and I could have sworn Anna was about to actually start jumping off the walls.

"Sorry, I'm just excited. I mean, usually when I knock on a door, nothing happens, but now I can do stuff with an actual person!" She grabbed me by the wrist and shot forward, my body stumbling to keep up as best it could. We brushed past all the rooms in a flash – the throne room, the dining hall, the ballroom, the King and Queen's quarters, Elsa's room and Anna's room and everything in between. We quickly burst into a living area lined with paintings from ceiling to floor, when Anna promptly jumped up to a couch and slouched onto it, panting heavily.

"And this is where I spend most of my time. Whoo! What a rush!"

I didn't think I was very exhausted from the tour, but I found myself lying on the floor and panting heavier than Anna was. I wasn't too out of breath to talk, though.

"Why do you spend your time in here? Don't you do anything with Elsa, even talk to her?"

Anna's ecstatic grin dropped quickly into a gloomy frown. "No, I don't. I wish she would let me, but she doesn't."

"How come?"

Anna took a long, deep breath. "I don't know. When I was really small, we used to play together all the time. But when I was five, she locked herself up in her room, and never told me why. I used to be able to get Elsa to read me a story through the door before bedtime, but now she usually just tells me to go away. I don't get why she shuts me out!" Anna sprang up and kicked the couch, looking immediately like she regretted doing that. "Ouch! Ooooo ow ow ow!"

I sat up. "Are you okay? Do you need ice for that?"

Anna sucked up a breath through clenched teeth and sat back down. "I'm fine, I'm fine." Then she looked at me for a long time, with the most judgmental face I think I've ever seen her have. "If you're thinking about spending time with her like you would with a regular wife, forget it. She doesn't budge. She won't take walks with you, or eat dinner with you, or even talk to you. You'll pretty much have to live without her." She obviously saw my face drop, because she quickly added, "But you can spend time with me until she does something! I mean, I get pretty bored being alone, and there's no reason for you to have to do the same."

I got a sharp but small knot in my stomach; I wanted to go straight to Elsa and sort out the rest of our life together. I don't know why I calmed down quickly, but I did, and smiled at Anna. "Sure, why not?"

We spent the rest of the day and the rest of the week in that room, discussing the paintings on the wall.


	6. Part 1, Chapter 6

VI.

A week after coming to Arendelle, I got a chance to talk to Elsa for the third time in our two and a half weeks of marriage.

This time, however, it wasn't Elsa who summoned me to her room, but her father the King. He came to the living room in which Anna and I had spent our time the last week and asked to speak to me privately.

"Listen, Erik. I've been talking to Elsa, about you. I hear that you were talking to her through the door, hmm?"

Fear began bubbling inside. Did I do something wrong? I emitted a faint "Yes."

"Well, she didn't tell me any of the specifics, but she did make sure I knew that, even though she didn't say much to you, she says trusts you too. She said she understands you, and has a secret of her own to tell. Now, before you go in there, I'm warning you now, what you are going to hear might be too shocking to you. I didn't want her to tell you, but she insisted that you were the closest family she has now besides the Queen, Anna, and myself. She seemed convicted that you were trustworthy, and I trust her, so I suppose by default, I trust you. One more thing." He leaned in until he was inches from my face, and put on a more menacing voice. "Don't your _dare_ tell Anna what you are about to hear. And if I find out that you did a single thing to make Elsa feel uncomfortable or insecure… there will be _dire_ consequences." He marched away resolutely, forcing me to walk to Elsa's room on my own through the shards of apprehension his words had left strewn in the air. The walk was a blur, and I knocked on Elsa's door.

"Who is it?"

I prepared myself for everything I could think of. "Erik."

"Come in."

I cracked open the door and slipped inside. It clicked behind me and I looked at Elsa, who was sitting on her bed. She wasn't in her formal attire now, but in a casual dark blue dress that looked a lot more comfortable. Her blonde braid was down and to one side, but her eyes were the same crystal blue, and she had on those same gloves. She smiled very slightly at me, and I found my mouth smiling back.

"I've been thinking about what you said to me last week. About your life, and understanding, and trust… I heard your story, and I realized you might be able to understand me even better than my own parents can." She sounded more scared than she looked.

I stayed silent; I felt her on the edge of a monologue. My hands got warm.

"I have a curse. You're sick with fire, and I'm cursed with ice." She carefully pulled off a glove and produced a timid puff of snow, and then jerked the glove back on. I expected to be surprised, but somehow I wasn't. It was almost as if I knew of this – or felt this - on the day I last talked to her. I let her go on.

"When I was little, me and Anna would go to the ballroom to play, and I would cover it in snow. We would make snow angels and snowmen, and have snowball fights. I would make her hills to climb over, and ramps to catch her when she, being Anna, jumped off of them. One day, when I was eight years old, I accidentally shot a blast of ice at my sister's head." Somehow, Elsa's voice hadn't changed its sound, but tears had started rolling from her eyes. "We had to take her to a special place to get her fixed, but the one who saved Anna's life also told me that my curse was too dangerous, and that I needed to keep it hidden from Anna for her protection. I couldn't have just decided to stop using my powers either; they're controlled by my emotions, and have only been growing stronger…"

It was only then that I noticed that every surface in the room was covered in frost or ice, and that a light dusting of snow had fallen since she had started talking. I let the weight of her words sink into my mind, now fully engaged to Elsa.

"Sorry if I'm being too blunt about this," she continued, "When you told me your story, it just made me feel… safe. Like I wasn't a complete danger, or if I was, that I wasn't the only one. We are both secretly volatile, for reasons I can't say to anyone besides my parents and you, for my sister's sake. You're lucky; your sickness has died down with age. But my ice curse has only been getting stronger, and every day I'm a bigger threat to Anna than I was the day before. Even if he didn't know it, at least my father found me someone who could _truly_ relate to me, of a much more fundamental level than I ever expected." Elsa brought her fingers to her wet eyes, and trying to hide a controlled but heavy cry. "Conceal it, Elsa," she commanded under her breath, "Conceal."

I felt tears make their way out of my own eyes as I walked over to her bedside and brought my left hand to her face, gently tilting it so she could see through those watery blue eyes the most reassuring smile I could give her. She sniffled a bit and smiled a bit more, and then her cheek began to sizzle.

Elsa shrieked horribly and shot backwards onto her bed as I whipped my hand away form her face in gut-wrenching pain. My vision went blurry for a few seconds, and Elsa, clutching the side of her head with her hands, screeched out loud what I was thinking.

"What the heck was that?"

I was too shocked and disturbed to make any sort of noise while Elsa wailed in pain. Her hands fell off of her face, revealing a hideous welt in the shape of my hand, a peeling, frothing burn that oozed a vile fluid onto her dress. My stomach churned; it was too much, I looked away. I couldn't feel my left hand, and found it a completely frostbitten mass of purple and black. I didn't care about it, though. I built up the courage to look at Elsa again, who was no longer screaming, but sobbing softly. The burn on her cheek and chin looked intolerable, but the feeling of complete betrayal her weeping eyes gave me kicked me with enough force to knock me off of my feet.

Just then, the King and Queen burst into the room.

"What is going on-" The King's jaw dropped, and the Queen screamed and ran to her daughter, who was beginning to faint. The King, in a concerned, hollow voice, mentioned something about trolls to the Queen, who nodded and walked out of the room with Elsa scooped up in her arms. The King turned his head to me, and we locked eyes. His bewilderment transformed almost instantaneously into pure rage.

"You rat!" He stormed over to me, and I jumped up off of the floor. He roared, "You unworthy piece of-" He thrust a punch into my chest with every syllable; I heard the crack of ribs. "You hurt her! You slime! You hurt Elsa; you could have killed her! You need to die!" He knocked me down with an elbow to the face, and brought his heel to a throat connected to a blood soaked head. I became scared for my life; fire shot out of my hand and feet. Not a sick fire, but an actual, on-demand blast. The King twitched a little, but did not move his foot. I lost the energy or the will to move.

"Stop, please." I found myself desperate to end the pain. On the King's face grew a malicious smile.

"No. I can't make you die, by myself or by execution. I need you to suffer, in the same way you're making Elsa suffer. For the attempted murder of my daughter, I hereby sentence you to life in prison, with torture as needed. I'll see to it that you can never hurt my daughters again. Guards! Take him."

My body went limp, and I passed out as the guards dragged me away by the wrists.


	7. Part 2, Chapter 7

**Part Two - Concurrent**

VII.

My first years in the Arendelle dungeon might just have been the best years of my life. Not for comfort or leisure, of course, by a long shot. I never was sent to any sort of holding cell; the King must have made it very clear how he felt about me, and the guards immediately threw me into a room accordingly. I fell face first into the dank cell, landing on the scattering of straw that was supposed to be a bed as the guards slammed the door behind me. As I scanned the mossy, cavernous stone room, I found that I was alone with an ashy spot for a fireplace, a putrid corner for a bathroom, and about a dozen rats. The cell was an odd combination of humid and cold, and water dripped into puddles on the ground from moss clumps in the ceiling. Void of energy on that first day, I simply accepted the cell as my new home and went to sleep on the straw.

The conditions in the cell were, to say the least, not ideal. On the first day, an executioner had loped off my frostbitten left hand to prevent me from dying of an infection before experiencing torture, and the stub that was left over still stung after a night of rest. Food was to be served once every day at noon and consisted of a stale lump of bread, a small raw potato, and water. The room was always too wet and too cold; I would find the strangest weeds and insects clinging to the wall, or to me. The rats were a nuisance; they gnawed at my feet while I ate, and woke me up at night with their endless attack on my toes. On the third day of imprisonment, I was pulled into the first torture session.

Well before sunrise, a large ringing thud jolted me awake. I spun my head to see the jailer motioning for me to step out of the cell. He threw a coarse sack over my head as I walked out and, grabbing both of my hand behind my back, lead me to a hot, stony room. He took my hood off for me to behold walls lined with gruesome, blood-spattered devices, and pushed me towards broad and burly man with a leather bullwhip. The first day proceeded as the sessions usually did: the man would give me fifty lashes on the back, occasionally throwing in a shot in the chest or legs or arms for variety. There were days on which I was, for some reason or another, forced to endure one of the machines on the wall, but I try not to think of those too much.

No, the Arendelle dungeon provided me with something much more valuable than physical comfort – knowledge, and control. A month into my stay at the dungeon, the guards threw another man into my cell. He was older, probably over fifty years of age, and had long fading hair that flowed into a white bush of a beard. The deep and grimy ridges and wrinkles on his face surrounding his bright brown eyes contrasted with his muscular arms and broad chest, and I didn't know what to think of him until he had started talking. I don't exactly remember why we started talking; it was just that I felt like I could talk with him for hours, I suppose, and I was right to feel that way. He introduced himself simply as Mikael, and after I had introduced myself simply as Erik, we began a winding and adventurous conversation that lasted until we were too tired to make intelligible sounds. And as we talked with each other for the following months, we began to learn more about each other, and about the larger world. I told my life story, and he what I thought was his. I never thought to ask Mikael how he could have possibly known the things he knew, but I got as much information from him as I could have ever hoped for. I learned that Elsa had been taken to the Valley of the Living Rock, where she was completely healed from her injury, but had no memory of my existence in exchange. Through a newspaper that, with Mikael's convincing, a scrawny guard smuggled in for us every week, I learned that the King and Queen of Arendelle had died on a boat, and that Elsa was to be queen when she came of age. I learned that the King of Fordane had also passed, and that his son had become King Joakim of Fordane. I also learned that King Joakim was his only son…

It took me a while to come to grips with the fact that, in the eyes of the outside world, I didn't exist. Not as Joakim's brother, not as the link between Fordane and Arendelle, not even as a distant memory in Elsa's mind. My entire life had been wiped clean, as if I had magically popped into existence as a prisoner a few months before the King and Queen of Arendelle had passed. I consoled myself with the knowledge that Elsa had made it out of the madness without harm, but even then I found myself forcefully reminded that, as far as she knew, I was just another prisoner.

The most freeing knowledge, though, and the reason I can call those years the best of my life, was the knowledge of fire. For the month before Mikael had arrived and for a month afterwards, I found myself recalling the letter Joakim had given me before I had left for Arendelle every time I sneezed fire or coughed up a flame. I kept it in a crack in the stone near my half of the straw bed, and read it every now and then. I was sick, I kept telling myself. I should have built a fire in the fireplace spot somehow, but I settled on channeling my outbursts through the dusty chimney. However, after the first month of conversation with Mikael, I felt like I could trust him with knowledge of my sickness._ Just remember, your sickness is a secret from everyone_, Joakim had told me. If telling Mikael everything was a mistake, then it was a wonderful mistake.

Mikael didn't ask for a demonstration first. He assured me that, based on my description, my so-called sickness sounded more like an ability or power than it did a disease, and that I should learn to harness it. It was the first time I had ever heard someone speak of my fire positively; not Dad, or Joakim, or even Elsa had anything to say about my sickness besides that: it was a sickness. Given this boost of confidence, over time I had began to try different things with Mikael, who I supposed used the wisdom of his years to help me succeed. I started out with small puffs from my hand and feet, which took only a month of work to produce on queue. I worked my way up to steady flames, and small fireballs, and fire breath. Within a year I could produce a warm, gentle, radiating heat, which was significantly harder than launching a fireball, as it required far more control.

I hadn't noticed for a while, but I began to realize that all the telltale symptoms of my sickness had vanished. It wasn't as if they had merely gone into remission for the summer months like they had for the last twenty-three years; they actually vanished. I had no sweaty palms or soles, and no feeling of heartburn in my chest, and the need to vomit flames had become so far removed from me that it almost seemed absurd. I discussed this with Mikael during one of our classic talks and, putting his wise mind to thought for a few minutes, reasoned that I had felt sick for all these years because I had been suppressing the fire at my core. With no where to go, it left in painful bursts and slowly through sweat, and pushed harder whenever I was cold or under stress as my core kicked itself into high gear. Now that I had an outlet for my fire, the pressure was relieved.

By the time three years had passed in the prison, I was no longer the Prince Erik of Fordane I had been for twenty-one years, and not only just in title. Partially in debt to Mikael and partially to the hardships of life in the dungeon, I was no longer a sick, whinnying little child. I was a man, a strong man, both physically and mentally. I had control over my fire, and control over my thoughts. I wasn't ready to face a world beyond the four corners of the Fordane castle when I got married. But on that day, about three years since I was accused of attempted murder, I was ready, despite the prison walls surrounding me.


	8. Part 2, Chapter 8

VIII.

"How far are you on that rope of yours?"

"I probably have about fifty feet, say forty just to be safe." I replied.

Mikael smiled. "I think that should be good enough for our purposes. Put it with the rest of the things."

I scooped the coil up from ground and made my way to a loose stone in the wall, which I pulled back to reveal a few tin cups for drinking water, the latest month's worth of newspapers, a few potatoes, and two woven straw hats. There were also two crude knives Mikael and I had forged from stones, and a canvas knapsack the guard who smuggled in our newspapers had brought for us. I had just repositioned the loose stone over the contents when the jailer slid open the door and gestured for me to come for a torture session. I glanced over to check for the slightest of nods from Mikael before stepping out of the cell. I was time to put a loose plan we had been working on for a few weeks into action.

The jailer of course slid the sack over my face, which I quickly burnt off with my breath. The jailer shouted and jumped back, and I focused some of my core energy into my hand as I swiveled around to face the man. My right hand churned up a heat wave that knocked him off of his feet, and with my left arm stub I seared a small section of his flesh, not enough to kill him, but more than plenty to incapacitate him with pain. Mikael burst out of the cell with the loaded knapsack strapped across his chest, and with me leading, we ran. I didn't care where we were going, and Mikael only a bit less so. I simply ran straight, blasting anything or anyone in my path with my torch and leaving a sea of burn victims in my wake. It's a wonder how I never set Mikael aflame in my excitement.

Before long we leaped out of an upper level window and into the thicket below, cushioning our fall with the foliage I was trying not to cook. We crashed into the ground, and I looked up to see flames sticking their tongues out the window. Mikael was just telling me to start running again as a figure fell out of the castle, through the cushion of the trees, and crunched into a heap in front of my feet. It was a castle guard, his body horribly mutilated with ash-laden burns, lying as a pile of broken bones on the earth. He craned his blistering neck to look at me dead in the eyes with terrified orbs embedded in a purple face. His voice forced its way through a wall of pain.

"You monster…" he rasped, "Why?" His life quickly caught up to him, and he died.

I stared at the corpse for an unhealthy amount of time. I studied every burn, every streak of ash. _I_ did that. I focused on my right hand, and then my left stub. _These_ did that. What had I done? My mind raced back to Elsa, and her face… What had I done? My stomach sank. This man was right; I was a monster. I found my hand again and began to tremble. I did that. Terror pulsed through my veins. This was sick. I wasn't sick, but my fire was still… sick. I felt that nauseous heartburn in my chest.

Mikael realized I had stopped dead in my tracks. "Erik, are you okay? C'mon, we've got places to go." I looked at the dead guard, and the flames still licking the air from inside the prison tower, and back at the corpse on the ground. I couldn't handle it anymore. I snapped.

"No! I'm not okay!" I stared Mikael straight in the face. "Don't you see what just happened? I just _killed _thesepeople! My fire is a _murder_ _weapon_! I thought Elsa was being ridiculous for locking herself up, keeping her ice curse from hurting anyone. I had no idea; _I_ was the only person my sickness made miserable before today. I get it now, _this_ isn't a power, it's a curse!" I pointed fervently at the corpse, my hands and feet getting warm for the first time in almost three years. Mikael took a step back. "The King was right to lock me up. I'm a monster! I only didn't hurt father or Joakim because they did their best to suppress the curse. 'Sickness' was just a euphemism, but 'power' is a lie!" I cried. I didn't just tear up, but choked on an awful, guilty, angry sob that flowed with the force of twenty-four years of ignorance. Mikael kept his head level and spoke again.

"Listen, I know you've got a lot on you're mind, but we haven't got much time. What's done is done, now all you can do is move on. I know horrible things just happened, but right now we need to focus. This isn't the time to panic. I read in the paper that tomorrow is the Queen's coronation day. Everyone will be in town for the night, which will allow us to slip into the mountains unnoticed. We'll find a place to rest, and we can sort stuff out there, hmm?"

I had too much more to say, to him and to myself, but his logic got to me. Of course, we need to find a cave in the North Mountain. It made sense. I followed Mikael through varied terrain, deaf and blind to the world around me. After a day of non-stop stupor and a trek almost as steady, we finally settled in a North Mountain cave. I fell sleep instantly, feeling too tired to question my circumstances until the next day.

And all the while, I forgot to realize that the 'Queen' who was to be coronated would, of course, be Elsa.


	9. Part 2, Chapter 9

IX.

When I came to, Mikael had already started a fire and was roasting a rabbit over it. A slight summer breeze stirred the scent of the rabbit around the cave, and a soft sun shined in from the same place. The dry rock surrounding me expressed itself with streaks of color running in rings around the cave. The beauty of the day made Mikael and myself seem disgusting in comparison.

Our clothes were tattered from a long day's hike and singed from the fire escape before that. Whatever parts of our clothes we had gotten wet the day before were now caked with dirt, and the parts that remained dry had grown films of dust. Mikael's beard was a knotted clump, with more streaks of color in it than the rocks had.

Mikael put out the fire with a splash of water and a vigorous stomp, tore off the rabbit's hind legs, and walked over to where I was now sitting upright. He took a seat next to me, back to the cave wall, and handed me a leg.

"You ought to eat. You had a rough day yesterday; you'll need to get your energy back. And the best part – lunch isn't a potato." He smiled for a while as I began gnawing ravenously at the leg. He paused briefly, and continued, "You know, Erik, you're a good kid. Well, not a kid, I guess, you haven't been for a long time. You're a good man Erik. You've been a good man to me these last couple of years, and I've tried to do the same for you. I mean, I hope you think I'm a good man, you tell me so much about yourself, I feel like I know you better than I know myself." I stopped stuffing my face only because I was out of meat, and gave Mikael a puzzled look. He sighed. "Okay, Erik. I have to be straight with you. About me. I know for these last years you've let me know every aspect of your world; now it's my turn."

I finally spoke. "Shouldn't we look for food, or water?" I instantly realized how insensitive that sounded, but before I could move to correct myself, Mikael spoke again with a hearty laugh.

"Look at you, being practical! Glad to see you're not in that crying fit anymore. Yeah, I suppose we should. We'll gather food and find some clean water before it gets dark; my blabberfest can wait until later."

• • •

We spent the rest of daylight roaming around the forest at the base of the mountain. We came back to the cave at sunset with a few handfuls of berries, three carrots, and two tins of clear river water. As the last of the light faded away, I started a fire with a small spark at the remains of the last one, which hadn't burned up all of the wood available to it. I joined Mikael, who was sitting on the ground with his back towards the wall and his front to the fire. I talked to him through a carrot.

"So you were saying?"

Mikael was too focused in his berries. "Hmm?"

"This morning, you were saying? About your life?"

He shifted his gaze from his food to the fire. "Right. I have to tell you some things about me. And also you. I don't want to sugarcoat anything for you, so here it goes, straight forwards, blunt as the back of a spoon." I waited for a good minute or two before he started talking again. "I'm your uncle."

I spat out my carrot and gawked at him, and then laughed. "Ha! That's funny, nice joke. You're obviously…" My heart tightened when I saw his face drop. He wasn't joking at all; he was dead serious.

"I'm your uncle, and I let you kill your mother."

His revelation didn't shock me, or even confuse me. My mind simply and overtly rejected it. It just seemed absurd. "Okay, you've had your fun, you can stop making things up now."

Mikael's face remained dishearteningly straight.

"Seriously, you can stop now. It's not funny anymore."

His eyes became sadder. "Now, don't get mad at me. You think I _wanted_ her dead? It's nothing like that, nowhere close to that. She was my sister! She was the kindest person I've ever known, and had a tender heart, even for people she didn't particularly like. And her smile… her smile just made you feel like everything was okay, even if it wasn't."

My head swam, but Mikael had anticipated and extinguished the anger that was supposed to be pressurizing the inside of my skull before it even came into existence. Left with a void, I had no choice but to notice the genuine depression in Mikael's voice. "I never said I was mad." It gave Mikael the courage to talk.

"It was an accident, a few months after you were born. I used to be a doctor by trade, so naturally, I took care of all of my sister's medical needs, including delivering you. When your mother noticed that you had some unusually high fevers, I suggested some medicines that might just do the trick. One day, a castle guard knocked on my door and delivered an urgent message: you had a disturbingly high fever, none of the medicines were working, and that your mother needed my help immediately. I rushed over to the castle, but it was too late. By the time I had gotten to your room, you were lying on top of the bed, swaddled in a fluffy blanket. Your mother, though…" Mikael cleared his throat nervously. "You mother was lying on the ground, dead, with a gigantic, cauterized hole through her chest. You could see the floor through a space wide enough to put your flat hand through. I looked up and saw a blood-splattered circle of ash on the stone wall, near the ceiling. I didn't even have a chance to feel sad, or terrified, or confused, because just then, your father came bursting into the room." Mikael shuddered. "I'll never forget his words.

"'You rat! You unworthy piece of… You've killed her! You slime! Get out, now! Don't you dare ever come back!' I ran out of the castle as fast as I could, and didn't look back. I was such a coward."

The sides of my skull pounded and pulsed with a new realization: what I had done to Elsa wasn't new. I had done that before, to my own mother, and from the sound of it to a much further extent. My core heated up and my face got red. I had blasted a hole through my own mother. It wasn't Mikael's fault, he had nothing to do with it, and why he felt guilty I had no idea. It was all on me.

My vision got blurry, but I still managed to stare at my right hand, and the lack of the other. I hurt everything I came close to with these: the castle guards, or my mother, or Elsa… I stood up and pounded my head with my arm stub, and then the cave wall, leaving blood smeared on both.

"What have I done, what good am I? None! I can't be let loose, I'll burn everything I love, and do worse to everything I don't! I _need_ to be sick, because otherwise…" I turned to Mikael, who was still staring at the fire. "Go away. Now."

He faced me with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Go away. Far away. Please, I don't want to hurt you. It's a miracle I didn't burn you to a crisp during our escape from the prison, or anytime before that when we were practicing, and I would like to keep it that way. Oh, what did you do for the last three years, Mikael? You've made a monster!" I jerked my face from one of concerned anger to one just of concern when I realized that our campfire had grown to lick the top of the cave. "No, you didn't make a monster, you made a monster realize he was a monster. Thank you for that. Now, for your safety, go."

Mikael gave me a stern look. "Do you even know what you're saying? I'm not leaving you, even if you think I am. Now, calm down, sit here and let me finish."

The campfire shrank back down to normal, and I did as he said. I began rubbing the dried blood on my forehead as he continued.

"After I ran away and had a few days to clear my head, I learned of an oracle who lived in the woods, in a forest not far from Fordane. Normally, being as I was a man of science, I would have rejected the hocus-pocus of an oracle, but after seeing what you had done to-" He saw my face and stopped himself. "what had happened to your mother, I had a more open mind. I set off on foot with a knapsack of provisions, and within a week I was standing in front of a wooden hut carved into the base of a massive tree, and the old, short woman who lived inside, whose face was just as gnarly as the tree she lived in.

"She told me everything about your fire, and why it was created. She said that the Greater Force was tired of seeing humans moseying about the Earth with no purpose other than to exist until the next day. She said that the Force created two sets of traits, one of fire, emotion, love, and anger, and another of ice, poise, clarity of thought, and fear, and that they were given to people for the Force's entertainment. She said she didn't know to whom the traits went, but that it sounded like you had the fire half of it. She laughed at that, and said that the Greater Force must've wanted to spice things up really badly, giving it to a member of a royal family. She kicked me out of her house when a middle-aged man made a large clanging noise in the back of the room, but not before she had instructed me to not worry about your powers, and that they wouldn't hurt anyone. I began walking back to Fordane.

"Of course, I couldn't believe most of what she had said, considering myself to be a logical man. I wanted to dismiss everything she said as mystical nonsense, but I found myself taking to heart much more than I should have. The last thing she said got to me; how can she say your fire wouldn't hurt anyone, it killed my sister!" Mikael shifted his position and glanced at me uncomfortably, trying to see if I would crack again. He realized that my raging emotions were being put on hold by an attentive stupor until I could better decide on a flame to fuel, and continued. "I left an anonymous note on the king's door when I got back to Fordane. I had written two copies of it, just so I would never forget what I had written, but now I kind of wish I hadn't." He reached his hand into a deep pocket and pulled out a slip of paper, which he unfolded and handed to me. It read:

_To the King of Fordane, and him only:_

_What I write of is an urgent matter of utmost importance, and not to be seen or heard by anyone else but you. Your son is sick, with a rare disease that causes him to produce fires. It may sound strange, but it requires immediate care. Make him suppress his bursts of flame in the same way one would a cough or a sneeze, and if he gets too uncomfortable, bring him close to a source of heat. Do not let him, under any circumstances, start a fire._

_-Someone who cares_

I pulled out the note in my own pocket, that Joakim had given me when I first left for Arendelle. My mind raced. I couldn't count the number of times, in the last three years, that I had cursed my brother and father for suppressing a gift, and the times in the last two days when I had thanked them for suppressing a curse. I had so much to say that I was almost speechless. I looked at Mikael with uneasy eyes. "_You_ did that?"

Mikael winced. "I know. I wish I hadn't. I really, really wish I hadn't. And I kept on wishing I hadn't for the next twenty years. My medical practice went up and down and up and then down in flames, but I was too traumatized to really care, even when I pretended that I did. When I saw in the newspapers that you were to be married off, and would, unconventionally, be moving to the bride's kingdom, I knew I had to see you again. And see you I did; I put on a disguise and, with hope that your father had forgotten my face after a few decades, faked my way into the ceremony as a minor government official from Arendelle. I saw you, and Elsa." He checked to see if I was doing all right.

I stared at him again, mouth agape. "You did _that_?"

He took a deep breath and stroked his beard, and pressed on. "After you got married, I sort of… followed you around. Just to check up on you, see where you were. I followed you to Arendelle, but I didn't gain too much insight about you. I had the chance, though, to overhear the King and Queen talking once, about a month after your… incident. I learned everything, about what had happened and how Elsa was saved. I learned of Elsa's ice powers, and thought back to the oracle… Two royals with abnormal powers, married? If the oracle was right, then the Great Force must have really wanted to make thing difficult. But the King and Queen learned everything too; when I was found eavesdropping, I was so caught by surprise that I splattered the truth, for which I was of course promptly jailed. And then… well you know the rest."

I let all the information filter through my head. I repeated myself, lacking any other words to represent everything I thought I had known about this man. "You _did_ that?"

Mikael looked ready to explain himself further, but he was cut off by a sharp, freezing wind that broke the summer night sky and rushed into the cave. It quickly snuffed out the fire and brought about a flurry of snow, which quickly escalated into a blizzard. I couldn't hear Mikael shouting or anything; I couldn't hear myself think, the wind was howling so loudly. I tried to run out of the cave, but the force of the wind was holding me back, and the snow and ice had already locked my feet in place and were crystalizing up my legs. As the snow began choking the mouth of the cave, I grew desperate.

I drew my arms together and fired a tornado of flames in front of me, punching a hole through the solid white storm. The ice around my feet fell away, and I sprinted out of the cave in a ball of fire. I burst out just as the storm ceased blowing ice at me, and landed feet first in the powder below. I looked back at the cave, and saw nothing but a rocky circle poking out from a sheet of snow. But at least I could find the cave. I couldn't say as much for Mikael.


	10. Part 2, Chapter 10

X.

The next two days were the most miserable of my life. They were colder than my sick winters back home, and more of a starved of food than my years in prison.

I gave up on finding Mikael after two or three hours of incessantly blasting pointless holes into the snow, finally being too cold to cling onto useless hopes. I forgot about almost everything: I forgot about Mikael, I forgot about the dungeon, I forgot about Elsa, I forgot about the prince I no longer was. I even forgot to wonder why there was a blizzard in the middle of summer. The only thing I could keep a hold of was my fire, and that was just out of necessity, for keeping myself warm. It's funny, how in true times of crisis, all that is irrelevant to the present situation is immediately washed from the mind.

For those two days, I walked in a straight line around the cone of the mountain, not to actually get anywhere, but to find food. I never did. I had as much water as I wanted, though; I just melted a handful of ice, and a few drinks every now and then made me loose awareness of my hunger long enough to move a significant distance.

The cold wasn't nearly as tolerable. I was dressed in the short, dirty, absorbent rags Arendelle prisoners would wear in the summer, and the only thing that stood in between my feet and the ice were two squishy canvas shoes, burnt on the bottom from the more recent practice sessions in the dungeon. Water on the verge of freezing sloshed around my feet, and glued my shirt to my chest and my pants to my legs. Whenever I would use my heat to keep from getting frostbite – I had seen how unpleasant that was – the snow pack around me would liquefy, dropping me into a knee-deep puddle before I hit the rock of the mountain. Not able to use fire to protect myself from the elements, I was forced to trudge through white snow and clear slush. I probably could have blasted much of the snow off the mountain with a decently large fireball, but I kept remembering that Mikael was down in the ice somewhere, and couldn't bring myself to do it.

Those two days were definitely not a blur; I remember every minute of them with goose bumps and clattering teeth. By the end of them, I had, without ever stopping to eat or rest, brought myself to the side of the mountain opposite the cave, the side closer to Arendelle. I heaved my legs onward, thinking only of where to put my next step. I was still focused on nothing more than surviving, or even just moving forwards, when I saw a castle.

I rubbed my eyes to make sure a few sleepless days of hypothermia hadn't made me start hallucinating. I wasn't; in front of me was a castle, or more of a palace, made entirely of ice. Hexagonal beams thicker than I was tall rose from the ground to meet the rest if the castle in the air. Sheets of ice latticed the solid framework, and frozen spires reached skywards from a crystalline dome. I found myself at the foot of the castle, which had a magnificent, decorated doorway past a somewhat damaged piece of staircase. I walked up and entered the castle, not wondering about how such a structure could have been made, or who could have created it. I concluded that rich people lived in castles, and where there were rich people, there was food.

When I entered what was almost the only room in the building, the first thing I noticed wasn't the massive blue and purple pillars racing up the walls, or the balcony stretching out into the sky on the far side, or the icicles protruding from the walls in every direction. The first thing I noticed wasn't the shattered back door and wall of ice on the balcony, or the several icy spears pointing to one place on the wall, or the shards of an elaborate chandelier strewn about the center of the room. No, the first thing I had noticed was a frozen little carrot, sitting shriveled up by the front door.

Cooking and eating that one carrot made all the difference in the world. I felt my energy and strength come back, and the stupor I had been in and out of since I escaped the dungeon finally leave me for good. The torture of the last three or four days was over. Of course, regaining my vitality had its drawbacks, as I actually began taking in the scene around me. There had been a fight. I studied the forms of the ice closer. There had been a fight, and some one was fighting with ice. Someone like… Elsa.

The life I had temporarily forgotten hit me in the back of the head like a ton of bricks; if it had hit me in the chest, it would've had the wind knocked out of me. It had to be Elsa. A whole castle made of ice, though? My mind raced with blunt ideas that ran a fine line between being awestruck and insulting. How could it have been Elsa, if she just stays in her room with gloves on her puff-making hands? How could I say that the castle was hers, when the most intense thing I'd ever seen her do was freeze my hand off? If I, after three years of what I hoped was training, couldn't make a fire well enough to keep my feet dry without melting half a mountain of snow, why should I think that Elsa would be an instantaneous architect? And the fighting – where would Elsa have learned to fight like that? The icicles by the wall and block on the balcony made it clear now; she had a point to someone's throat and had another on the edge of a cliff. And from the direction of the blasts, she would have stood dead in the center of the room, right under the chandelier…

I twitched and stumbled over to the center of the room, not actually being as revived as I had initially felt. I breathed a sigh of relief, for there was no body in the pile of ice, and nobody's blood had stained the scratched crystal floor. My brain resumed its thought process. There was no way that Elsa had done all of this, but she obviously had. She had a battle with her frost thrown into the mix, and had built a masterpiece of a palace, albeit a war-torn palace from the inside. Suddenly, all of the pieces had fallen into place, and my mind clicked violently.

Elsa didn't just freeze up some fighters, or a castle. She had frozen all the land as far the eye could see; she had cut the summer short with a great freeze, and draped the world in a blanket of snow.


	11. Part 2, Chapter 11

XI.

After a long nap, I decided to head back to Arendelle. There was nothing for me on that god-forsaken mountain, not even food, and I had only woken up because the ice castle, along with the thick layer of snow, had mysteriously vanished from underneath me. The mountain was now just an inhospitable rock, so I had go to the only place I knew had a path leading up to it. What ever would happen would happen. I'd probably get thrown back into jail, but it would be better than starving to death.

For the next several hours, I trekked through the forest at the base of the mountain in the reverse direction Mikael and I had taken days ago to get there. I was feeling a lot better; I hadn't found any food, but the sun was shining warm and bright, and my clothes were dry by the time I thought to check on them. I finally made it to a dirt road, which I decided to take. Mikael and I had come from the forest on the far side of the path, but there was no point in going back the outer walls of the prison towers. I couldn't enter the city as a prince, but that didn't have to mean I would enter as a savage.

I walked on that path with a brisk pace until the sun began to wane and turn the sky red. When I finally entered the city, I was overwhelmed with a sense of safety. There were merchants with metal things and bakers with food carts down the streets, which were lined with houses and stores. People stared at me as I walked past, and I didn't find out why until I had made it to the central square of the city. It was iced over, and the people were busy ice-skating on it. I got down on my knees and looked at a reflective part of the ice, and saw myself for the first time in three years.

It was a ghastly sight. My face was hollow, and my skin clung tightly to my bones. My hair was matted and clumped together with ash and dirt; my chin had clusters of beard that were just as filthy. And in the center of it all were two sunken eyes surrounded by purple bags, two yellowed, bloodshot eyes which, upon closer inspection, were not a swirling brown, but a strikingly bright red.

I thanked Elsa for letting me see the mess I had become, and lied down on the ice in a sudden rush of exhaustion, directly in the path of a woman not very skilled with ice skates.


	12. Part 3, Chapter 12

**Part Three – Sequel**

XII.

I woke up in a soft bed, under warm sheets and with a fluffy pillow cushioning my head. I felt a sharp euphoria, thinking that the last three years of my life had just been one prolonged nightmare, but it immediately dissipated when I couldn't feel my left hand. I looked at my shirt, and found it beige, woolen, and clean. My right hand had no dirt on it, and it felt like the rest of me didn't either. I sat up just as a middle-aged woman with bouncy red hair and more freckles than she had face rushed in with a bowl of soup.

"You're awake! How good, isn't that good, Harald?"

An older man with silvery hair grunted from the cheap wooden dining table on the other side of the room.

The woman grunted back in disapproval. "Don't mind my husband, he's just a little sour. Here eat this, you'll feel better." I wordlessly accepted the soup, and Harald began talking in a voice that seemed an octave too high for his appearance.

"Just a little sour? I'm a whole lotta sour. You know why?"

The woman sighed. "Not this again."

Harald said, "I'm waiting," and then proceeded to wait.

"Why are you so sour, Harald?"

"I'll tell you why I'm so sour, Lilly, thank you for asking. I'm sour because the beloved Queen's 'accidental' ice storm killed nearly every crop in Arendelle! Not to mention all the people, who are barely better off than the plants!"

Lilly rolled her joking eyes so that I could see it but Harald couldn't. "And please, Harald, explain to this young man how dead plants matter to us, since we're not, I don't know, farmers?"

Harald stood up. "Because, Lilly, we have to eat something! Food prices are going to be ridiculous now that there's practically no food left! I swear on my mother's grave, that blizzard was some devilish plot by the Queen to make people like her for ending the very suffering she caused!"

Lilly smiled mockingly. "See what I have to live with? But I love him anyways." She got up and pecked him on the cheek, after which he mumbled something about getting ready for work and left the room. She turned her attention back to me.

"My, you finished that fast. Here, let me get that, do you want some more?" I didn't want to seem greedy, but nodded yes anyways, and soon enough she was back with a full bowl. "You know, when you fell in front of me, you weren't looking too good. Harald didn't think you would make it, but I told him that was nonsense. But really, how'd you get like that?"

It took me a while to notice that she was directly addressing me. "I'd been walking around for days with nothing but a frozen carrot to eat." I made sure not to say anything incriminating, or something else I would regret saying.

"Oh, that sounds awful!" Lilly sensed that I was uncomfortable talking about the last few days, and changed the topic. "Could I know your name?"

"Erik"

"Erik, that's a nice name. I always thought I would name my child Erik, but then I got two girls. They were the best little girls in all of Arendelle, and are the best young ladies now, if I may say so myself." She studied me closer. "You're not from here, are you?"

"No, Fordane."

"Fordane! I've heard of that place. I'm pretty sure Princess Anna went to your King's coronation about two years ago. Oh, I wish I could ask Harald, he always remembers this sort of thing, but he's probably gone to work."

I raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Wait, Anna went to Joakim's coronation? He already had a coronation?" I remembered after sounding ignorant the articles in Arendelle's newspaper about Joakim becoming king.

Lilly chuckled. "Interested in politics, I see. You should really know when your own King has a coronation, though. I mean, Queen Elsa had her coronation just a few days ago, and I didn't forget that." Lilly's smile slowly faded. "But now I kind of wish I could."

"She made the ice storm, right? Why?"

Lilly's smile came back halfway. "What do I look like, an oracle? I don't know, but as best I can tell, it was an accident. Considering her twenty-year streak of ice-free summers, though, I don't think we can really get too mad at her for one slip up. Though I do wish she had told us that she could, at any moment, freeze Arendelle over, before she actually went and did it."

I spent the next six hours alternating between talking small talk with Lilly and taking naps. Late in the afternoon, I finally asked her the question that would have been nagging me the whole time had it not been for her friendly company.

"When can I go see Elsa?" I got a few bubbles of heat in my stomach.

Lilly furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Look, I know that Her Majesty has this whole 'open door' policy now, but I don't think _Queen_ Elsa would want to be bothered by commoners like us."

I felt safe enough to divulge some information to Lilly, after our day of talking together. "I'm not a commoner. I'm Prince Erik, of Fordane, brother of King Joakim and husband of Queen Elsa, which makes me, I suppose, King of Arendelle."

Lilly burst out into laughter so convulsive that tears sprang from her eyes. She spoke when she had finally calmed down enough to do so. "Oh, Erik, you might've hit your head on that ice a bit harder than you think you did. Either that, or you're a jokester, which, trust me, with Mr. Sour Crops for a husband, I don't mind"

I forced myself to remember that Erik, Prince of Fordane, didn't exist. I would have to save the question of why that was for Elsa. How, and who, and why was I so completely erased from the minds of the people that they didn't even know Joakim had a brother? I had to settle with no response, though, and told Lilly that I planned on leaving when I felt well enough to.

"Well, I guess I can't keep you here forever, and if you're actually insane then I don't think I'd want to." She smiled. "I'm just kidding, just kidding. You go when you're ready, and remember that you can always come here if you need a place to stay."

After a bowl of soup and piece of bread the next morning, I wished Lilly and her husband good health and headed towards the Arendelle castle.


	13. Part 3, Chapter 13

XIII.

When I had reached the front gates, a guard asked for my name and conducted me to a wait line of citizens roughly twenty strong. I was informed that the Queen would begin seeing the people at nine-thirty, which was conveniently close to the time it was then. I glanced over at the people in front of me. They all looked dressed in their best clothes, with neatly groomed hair and shiny wooden, or occasionally leather shoes, but there was no mistaking that they weren't nobility. A few of them had brought along little knickknacks to pass the time with, while others, mostly men, just stood with their weight on one leg. I found myself in the same posture.

It was over two hours before every person ahead of me in the line had had his or her grievance received. The young, tall and brawny woman in front of me was so loud that, even from outside of the throne room, I could hear her shouting.

"Princess Anna, with all due respect, could you _please_ explain to Her Majesty that the Great Freeze killed nearly every pig I owned!" the woman said with a raised voice.

Anna made a noise as if she was going to shout back, but Elsa cut her off with calm but firm speech. "First of all, I expect you to talk to me directly about any issue you may take with the Great Freeze. I caused it, not Anna. When you say 'with all due respect,' I hope for your sake that you mean it. That being said, the Imperial Funds will compensate you for your pigs, along with any other property directly damaged by the Freeze. There, I've fixed what I can. You may leave."

"But how much will I get? Pigs cost more these days, Your Majesty, and-"

"You may leave." Elsa killed the woman's words with a resolute order backed with a cold plate of wrought iron.

I witnessed the woman walking out with a guard, and heard a male voice call out, "Next!" I forgot to take a deep breath before entering the room, but I was too close to the thrones by the time I realized it. I looked up at the two thrones and the chairs on either side of them.

On the left sat Anna, in nondescript clothing, staring with boredom at some part of her sleeve, and on the right was a man wearing a thick wool and leather jacket, and pants to match. He swept his blonde hair to one side with a hand as he studied a sheet of paper, checking off things every now and then with a stick of charcoal.

There were two adjacent thrones in the middle, and the one on the left was empty. On the right… Elsa. It took me a while to connect the woman I saw to the anxious, stressed, and sad girl I had known three years ago. Her hair was in a loose braid and draped over her left shoulder, at which point a magnificent light blue dress that it shined like ice took over, and followed her body to her feet. She was sitting up straight, but relaxed, with impeccable poise from her crownless head to her high-heeled shoes. It wasn't the stiff and uncomfortable poise she had sat with years ago, but a structure that allowed her freedom of expression while maintaining that regal appearance one would expect a Queen to have. Her eyes were the color of a frozen lake.

The man on the right had stopped checking his list and spoke. "Please state your name and purpose."

I cleared my throat. "Erik. My name is Erik, and I-"

I didn't get the chance to make up a reason for being there. Anna immediately jerked her head upon hearing my name, and upon seeing my left arm mentally identified me. She jumped out of her seat, which made Elsa and the other man turn confused heads at her.

"Anna, what are you doing?" the man said.

"I need to talk with Erik alone." Anna caught herself sounding too confident in my name, and awkwardly tried to cover it up. "His name's Erik, right? Well, I can hear what he has to say, you two move right along to the next person, I'll try not to take too long."

Elsa was openly perplexed. "But why?"

"I… I just know him, okay? Don't worry, I'll tell you everything, but I need him to tell me everything first."

"But-"

"Elsa, you kept a secret from me for thirteen years. I know how it feels, and I'm not going to do the same thing to you. I'll tell you everything; I just need to talk with him alone first."

Elsa gave an uneasy okay, and before I knew it Anna had grabbed me by the wrist and shot towards a hallway that led out from the back of the throne room, and we ended up in a rather small space, possible a bedroom, but void of any furniture except two small, adjacent wooden chairs. Anna sat in the left one and invited me to sit on the right. Forgetting that nobody knew I was a prince, I started talking.

"You remember me? Do you really remember me?"

Anna must've remembered me, because she wasn't insulted that I didn't address her formally. "Yes, Erik, I do. Prince Erik of Fordane." A smile pushed her freckles into her eyes. "Wow, it's been so long since I've seen you, like almost a week now! How's life?"

I was about to answer that I didn't really want to talk about the last three years without Elsa there, but I realized what exactly Anna had said. "It's been a _week_? More like three years."

Her smile didn't disappear completely, but it did fade a significant amount. "I know, you've got a lot of catching up to do, as do I, and Elsa. And I kind of feel sorry for Kristoff, he has so much catching up to do." I assumed Kristoff was the man in the throne room. "I guess I know where to start now. You know that guard who gave you newspapers during your… stay?"

My stomach sank. "You knew?"

"I didn't just know. I was that guard."

If I had any water in my mouth I would have spat it out, but I didn't, so it ended up being a spasmic convulsion of air. Anna wasn't nearly as intimidating as Elsa, though, or even Mikael, and I found my speech quickly enough. "_You_ gave us those papers? For three years? How? Didn't you get caught?"

Anna smirked proudly. "Not as air-headed as I look, hmm?" She thought back to the questions I had just asked her. "Speaking of _us_, where's Mikael? Did he not stay with you?"

I slumped my shoulders and bowed my head. "Yeah, he stayed with me, as long as he could. He got trapped in a cave by a blizzard; I barely made it out with my life."

She finally frowned. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Really, I am. And I know Elsa is too, I just… don't know if she should hear that right now. I mean, just overcoming thirteen years of fear of your power to find out that they killed someone, can you imagine?" Anna saw the look of sad affirmation I was giving her. "Oh, right, you can." She thought about my response a little more, and she leaned in with furrowed browns as she realized what I had implied. "You _killed_ someone?"

"A few people. Guards. On my way out…"

Anna slapped her forehead. "Of course! When I saw all the guards, that day you escaped… I thought it was just some torch or something that fell over in the commotion. But you… well, I guess Mikael wasn't teaching you for nothing, but you…" She glanced over at my guilt-laden face, and tried to pick up the hint. "Right, I'll spare you the details. It's just… they looked terrible. And their families…"

My eyes got wet, and my bubbling heart wrenched with pain from a feeling like acid. "Can we talk about something else?"

Anna laid a gentle hand on my shoulder and tried to smile. "Of course. You remember the paintings much?"

I gave a little chuckle and wiped my eyes dry. "Yes, I remember the paintings. And I still think that one above the couch could have used a tree or two." The tangent was enough to get me thinking again. "So how come you know I'm Prince Erik?"

"Pardon?"

"How come you know I'm Prince Erik?"

"Because I can see your face… and not your left hand." Anna took her hand off of my shoulder. "Sorry, I don't get what you're asking me."

I breathed out and elaborated. "Why do you seem to be the only one who knows that I am Prince of Fordane, and technically King of Arendelle?"

Anna turned away. "Now that's a little bit more of a story. It happened about two months after your arrest, when the King and Prince of Fordane were called over to Arendelle for a meeting with mom and dad, the Queen and the King.


	14. Part 3, Chapter 14

XIV.

"That day, I was just roaming the hallways, like I did every day, trying to find something interesting to do. I had already checked all my usual spots, but I was crazy bored, so I went over to the part of the castle where mom and father did their work. I was about to go away when I heard a loud shattering noise, like something glass had just been thrown at a wall. I pressed my ear to the door. I remember every word.

"'Do you even realize the magnitude of what your son did?' Dad sounded furious. 'Your son nearly killed my daughter! You know, in most kingdoms, attack on a member of the royal family is reason enough for a declaration of war!'

"'Please, try to be reasonable,' your father said, 'We didn't try to hurt Elsa. It's all on Erik, but we've been working on controlling his sickness since the day he was born. He must've had a little slip up, but it's nothing he could possibly controlled.'

"'But don't you think you should've mentioned that, oh, I don't know, your son breathes fire _before _marrying him off to my daughter?'" Anna slouched a little, and her tone briefly became almost spiteful. "He never even mentioned Elsa's powers, the hypocrite, not even to me. How could he expect your father and brother to tell some strangers about yours?

"Anyways, your father couldn't think up a good enough answer I guess, because mom started talking after a while. 'Well, whatever the case may be, we have decided that it is best to imprison Erik, for what is, after all, a crime. You may disagree with us, but I'm confident that you'll see we have ample reasoning behind the choice we made.'

"I was kind of expecting your father to retaliate, but he didn't. 'Of course. Do what you'd like with him. We've been pampering Erik his whole life, trying to get rid of his sickness, but from hearing what happened to your daughter, it obviously hasn't worked. He must need some times of hardship to get straightened out. I also have another suggestion.'

"My father started again. 'Now you listen here- wait, what? Oh… you… what's your suggestion, Your Highness?'

"Your dad's voice crawled in a whisper, so I could only make out a few words. I wasn't left wondering what they said, though, because after a few minutes, your father and brother came out of the room, not noticing me by the door. I began following them as they walked away.

"'Ah! Boy, isn't this great, Joakim? With that flaming nuisance finally out of our hair, can focus on what really matters – you. Think about it, with propaganda machines in full swing in both Arendelle and Fordane, it'll be a matter of weeks before the world thinks you're an only child! I wished you were the whole time, but I couldn't tell your mother that, now, could I? With that creep taking her life and all. We're done wasting time and energy and valuable resources to contain that freak. Such a relief, eh?'

"Your brother nodded, but it didn't look like he wanted to nod. He looked behind him and saw me peeping from around a corner. He shook his head urgently at me, telling me to scram before I got caught, and I did. I wasn't supposed to hear any of that stuff, but I did… so I had to do something. That's when I started sneaking up into the prison chambers as a guard."

I didn't care about Anna being the helpful guard, as too much of my heart was already dissolved in stomach acid by the end of her retelling. Until then, I had felt like the only person who ever betrayed me was myself, when I burned Elsa. I never imagined, in all my life, that my own father… he had done such a wonderful job covering up his own sentiments that I had grieved his death from inside the very cell he had helped put me in. He seemed completely supportive for twenty-four years; his character didn't have a scratch on it, much less a deep gash that would render it impotent as one fit for a father figure. And there was Joakim. I couldn't tell whether he wanted me alive or not, but how did he not ever tell me either? Even when he was a kid, for heaven's sake, I had no idea about my… his father. For some reason, though, I accepted what Anna said as fact; she knew a little something about having siblings keep a secret for years on end.

My face must've looked pretty blank, because Anna started waving her hand in front of it. "Hello? Erik? You there?"

In my shaken mood, it became very annoying very quickly. "Stop it!" I slapped her hand away.

Anna flinched, but tried not to show it. "Sorry. I'm not used to being… sensitive. I know it must suck, but I don't know what you feel like right now, and hopefully, I never will. But hey, look on the bright side! You have a family here. I'm here, and I'm sure you and Kristoff will hit it off just fine. You can even come to our wedding, when we get time to plan it. You and your wife Elsa, once she knows who you are again."

"I'm not married." Anna and I swung our heads at breakneck speeds to find Elsa standing in the doorway, her poise replaced with a shocked slouch.

• • •

Anna got up from her seat and helped Elsa stumble over to it. Elsa didn't look collected when she sat down; her hands, folded across her lap, were trembling, and her petrified eyes were staring straight ahead.

"Don't worry, Elsa, it'll be over quick." Anna assured, "You just have to wait until the memories come back… I know, it's going to hurt, but I know how you're feeling. I felt that when I found out about your ice, Elsa. I guess troll magic isn't _that_ strong."

Her words went right over Elsa's head. Elsa instead turned to me with those crystal clear eyes, which I couldn't look directly into. "You're my husband? Since when?" Then she clenched her teeth and slammed her eyes shut in pain, and her foot began stomping the ground. I looked at Anna, who was sure it would be over in minutes, and sure enough it was. I looked at Elsa obliquely again. I was afraid I would start feeling those horrid symptoms of my sickness, but just the faintest whispers of them found their way into my body, and I was well enough to talk.

"I know it's crazy, but I'm married to you. Have been for three years." I thought about her standing at the door. "How long were you listening to us?"

"Long enough. You… so all those feelings, years ago, the glimmer of hope I felt, the same feeling I had when I let my powers out… that was you?" She kept her eyes affixed to the floor.

I scratched the back of my head. "We had some talks. I spilled out my life's story on you, and you did to me. There was a bit more ice than there is now, though." I gave her a little smile in hopes of getting one back.

Elsa suddenly jerked back, with terrifying memories making their way into her head. "And then you burned-"

I held up my left arm. "Frostbite. I got hurt too, and I wasn't trying to burn you, just touch your face. It was my fault, I should have thought before I did something stupid. I never did have any troll fix me up, though, so I guess we're even."

Elsa's voice shifted from one form of horror to another. "I did that?" she said, and again in a duller tone, "I did that."

The room got a little colder. "Don't feel bad, you probably did the world a favor. I've… caused some damage to other people with my fire." I was far from looking her in the eye, but I moved my head in that direction. "Okay, I'll say it. I killed some people with this god-forsaken curse. At least you don't have _that _stain on your conscience." I remembered Mikael and realized I was lying, but I didn't have the heart to bring that up.

Just then, the man I assumed was Kristoff poked his head into the room. "Um… Queen Elsa, the people are getting pretty antsy waiting in that line so long."

Elsa finally decided to look at me at the same time that I decided to look at her. It wasn't synchronized enough for our eyes to lock, but we did find each other's faces. Hers was washed with sadness, but a purposeful sadness that fills a person's face when they accept personal pain for the sake of others, a sadness that she knew too well. "I have to go, I'm sorry-"

Anna cut her sister off. "No you don't Elsa, you stay in here and talk to Erik. I'll take care of those hooligans." She pushed up her sleeves comically, and was poised to throw pretend punches into the air.

Her efforts to break up the tense atmosphere worked, and Elsa smiled. "Or else what?" she mocked.

Anna put on her best fake air of queenliness. "Or else nothing – I order you to have fun while I do your work." Anna changed into a grinning frown just as fake as her queenliness. "Oh great, now I have to do all your work. The things I do for love, yeesh." She tried to walk out with her chest puffed out and head held high, like pompous queen, but stepped on her own skirt and fell to the ground.

Elsa couldn't hold back her laughter now, and she made the funniest awkward snorting chuckle I'd ever heard from anyone, Anna included. Her eyes widened and she blushed from the embarrassment, which only made her laugh even more. I couldn't help but join in, and Anna and Kristoff followed suit. Within seconds, we were all rolling on the floor cackling like children. After a while, we weren't even laughing at Anna's joke anymore, we were just laughing because the person next to us was. Nobody wanted it to end, and everyone was happy, so we kept on laughing until, eventually, someone had to breathe.

"I got to tell you, Elsa, I really wouldn't mind having Anna as a sister. That woman is insane, but she's the best kind of insane," I managed to say between gasps for breath and resurging giggles.

"Well, that insane woman better get to following her own orders, then," Elsa was starting to win back her speech from the laughter, but not very much. "You said yourself you'd do all my work."

"Hmm, I don't know if I can get there fast enough, though," Anna suggested as the laughter finally died down a bit. Elsa took the hint, and a pair of ice skates formed next to Anna, and promptly skated away on a path Elsa froze for them. Anna stumbled to keep up. "Hey, that's not fair!" she yelled, just as another pair of skates formed underneath her feet, and she chased the first pair out of the room and into the hallway. Kristoff helped a still giggling Elsa off the ground, and then me. He gave me a friendly handshake. "Hey, I'm Kristoff. I take it that you're Erik?"

"Yes, sir, that it correct," I said with the tip of a fake hat.

Kristoff smiled. "You have my girlfriend's sense of humor, I see. I'll see you around, I guess. Here's to getting to know each other better." He left with a clink of a fake glass.

I turned to Elsa, who was still smiling, staring wistfully at nothing in particular. "I needed that. It feels so good just to laugh, even if it's for no reason. Anna's such a great sister… if only I was a sister like that to her."

"Don't worry about that. You are now, and that's what matters, isn't it?"

"I suppose. It's just that… I was so caught up in my powers for the last, what, thirteen years that I never considered anything else. Now that I can remember them, even our 'conversations' were just a string of complaints about our lives."

"Trust me, I know the feeling."

Elsa raised an eyebrow and took a step towards me. I noticed her icy dress again for the first time since I saw her in the throne room. "You know, you don't have to say that anymore. I know you know the feeling. I you know that I trust you."

I put a foot forwards, and then another. I felt butterflies in my stomach, but they weren't the painful ones that came when I felt sick. "I know, I'm just not sure about anything anymore, and I need affirmation. I didn't even know my own father-"

"Shh." Elsa put her finger to my lips without actually touching them. "I know."

Without thinking, I wrapped my right hand around the hand she had next to my face. We were both very briefly frightened, but nothing happened as I held on; no sizzle, no pain, no burning, no frostbite. With a deep, welling euphoria, I stared into her crystal blue eyes, and her into my swirling red ones, and we kissed.

I'll spare you the details, but rest assured, they were wonderful details.


	15. Part 3, Chapter 15

XV.

I was the first to stumble out of the room, gasping and grinning and covered in melting frost. Elsa tumbled out afterwards with disheveled hair running down her shoulders, and clumps of her dress were solid sheets where the icy lace had melted and refrozen. She looked at me with an ear-to-ear smile. "Where were you on coronation day? I could've used someone like you."

I was so caught up in the present that I had almost forgotten about the past. "Oh, you know, hiding out in some mountain. Who cares? I'm here now." I realized that I meant what I said to the letter. I could only see a beautiful future, and so could Elsa, from her expression. The past was in the past.

She didn't get to reply with words, though, because Kristoff burst into our conversation for the second time that day. He was panting like a dog. "Queen Elsa, you really need to come now. There's not even a line anymore; it's a mob! The guards can't keep them back much longer, and Anna keeps trying to punch them in the face." Kristoff, forced to wait for Elsa's reply, stopped panicking long enough to look the two of us over. "Whoa, what happened here?"

Elsa stood up straight. "Never mind that, tell Anna I'll be right out."

"Okay, hurry." Kristoff raced off to go help Anna, leaving Elsa and me alone again in the hallway.

Elsa turned her attention to me. "Eric, I'm sorry, but I really have to-"

"Shh. I know. I'm coming with you."

She smiled. "Not in those clothes, you're not." I noticed after she had that I was still in the commoner's clothes Lilly and Harald had given me. "Go to the last room in this hall, to the right, I'm pretty sure father kept some clothes in there." She looked at her own dress, and with one row of sparkles starting from her feet and another from her chest, she restored it to its former glory. The braid was beyond repair, though, so she just pulled it out entirely and let her loose hair flow off of one shoulder. She walked away with the same grace she had when I had first seen her in the throne room, but with a little bounce in her step.

In the room at the end of the hall I found a collection of kingly garments, folded neatly and stacked on labeled shelves. I picked out a shirt, pant, and suit from the shelf labeled 'summer', and found to my relief that they were my all size. I didn't feel strange in the King's clothes at all; with a deep breath, a ring of fire started at my navel and spread outwards through the clothes, adding swirls of red and orange and grey and burnishing any trimming with the color of heated brass. It flowed into the silk cape I put on my back, and a wave of flames ousted the purple and green patterns in favor of more energetic red ones laced with smoke. I rubbed my nose. "Well, that just happened," I thought out loud. I figured that if Elsa could repair her dress, there should be no reason why I wouldn't be able to transform my own clothing, but the feeling was still strange. My fire had always caused discomfort, and to witness it doing something as harmless as coloring a suit instead of burning people was a little unsettling.

I shook my head and made my way back to the throne room, to help Elsa out in any way I could to stop the mob. The sight was unbelievable; the crowd had broken though the throne room doors that fed in from the waiting area, and the only thing that was keeping them from piling on the royal family was a solid wall of ice Elsa had erected. On the other side of the clear wall, guards were being tossed around like potatoes, and torches and pitchforks and screaming people hacked away at the ice. Elsa was running around fortifying the weaker sections; Kristoff was standing by with fingers plugging his ears, and Anna was adding to the uproar of the mob by shouting back at them. It was all too loud. I took a deep breath, a monstrous, voluminous breath that shouldn't have been humanly possible to take, and blasted my voice with the force of a raging fire, "Quiet!"

The room dropped to dead silence, and the crowd stared at me, as did Anna, and Kristoff, and Elsa. An ugly, old little man with a straw hat on his head spoke up with a booming voice from the front of the mob before long. "Who does this guy think he is, telling us to shut up?"

A conflicted Elsa turned to face me. She didn't want her ice to get out of control, and cause more harm than she already had with the Great Freeze. But her face said that she was done hiding; she wouldn't conceal what she was feeling. Her expression grew resolved and quite a bit annoyed, and she quickly rose up into the air on a pillar of ice that loomed over the people. "That _guy_ is my husband, and so is your King." she projected to the crowd, "Bow to him, show your respect."

Before I knew it, I was on a pillar identical to Elsa's, but the people didn't move a muscle. No one was foolish enough to speak this time, but it was obvious that nobody believed her. It wasn't obvious that Elsa was getting angry, though, until parts of the room began frosting over.

"Bow, or else." Elsa hissed with an icy wind. Most of the throne room was now frozen, and snow had started dusting the clear ice.

"Elsa?" Anna timidly brought herself into view.

"What?" Elsa was still piercing the crowd with her eyes as they slowly got on their knees and bowed to me.

Anna took a stronger stance. "Stop. You don't want to do this. You don't want to use your powers to hurt people, but just look at what you're doing now. Stop."

Elsa's eyes widened and she took a step back, right off of her pillar. Another one rose up to catch her, but then the pillars and ice wall faded through the ground, leaving Elsa standing, bewildered at what she had just done to the now fear-stricken people of Arendelle. "You may stop bowing now." She barely murmured loud enough for everyone to hear, even in the noiseless room. "From an orderly line, and speak only when spoken to, and we will address each your grievances individually." She silently walked over to her throne; Anna and Kristoff made their way over to their seats, and I sat wordlessly in the throne next to Elsa's.

The first man who came up was the ugly one who had made Elsa angry. I glanced over at Elsa's face, half expecting it to be contorted with rage, but it wasn't. It was calm and regal, the face fit for a queen. It was by no means relaxed, or happy, but it was calm. "You may speak," Elsa instructed the man.

He fell to the ground and bowed to his Queen. "Your Majesty, I had no idea-"

"Apologize to the King, not me. He's the one you insulted."

The man turned his bow to me. "Your Majesty, the King, I apologize for my rash behavior. Please don't hurt me." He let out a pathetic little whimper and didn't take his eyes off of the floor.

I did my best to keep my expression and voice as level and authoritative as Elsa's. "It's okay, I pardon you. I suppose I owe an explanation to you as well as all the people of Arendelle." The multitude looked up at my offer. I checked for Elsa's approval before continuing. "I was Prince Erik of Fordane, younger bother of King Joakim." Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

"Three years ago, I was married to your queen. But then, certain… circumstances arose, and I was erased from the minds of the people. I apologize for that, but it was out of my control, or the control of anyone here." Everyone knew I was speaking of the past King and Queen of Arendelle. More whispers spread from person to person, and some people began shifting around.

"This morning, those circumstances ended. I am now here to serve you as your King, second in power to Queen Elsa, of course." I looked at the man, who was still bowing, clutching his straw hat with one hand. "You can get up now. Is that all?"

He obviously had come to the palace to say something, but was too scared and cowardly to say it. "Yes."

"Then you are dismissed." He ran out of the room faster than I thought his age would allow him to. "Next."

An older man with silvery hair walked up, but didn't bow or wait to receive permission to speak. "Erik?" Harald asked.

I stopped Elsa before she could say anything. "It's okay, I know this man," I whispered to her privately, and then raised my voice for the public. "Before you start, sir, I would like for the people, and Queen Elsa, to know something about you. When I found my way back to Arendelle two days ago, the day after Queen Elsa's coronation, I was in an unfavorable condition. This man and his wife found me, took me in, and nursed me back to health from my emaciated state. I swear, if it wasn't for these people, I would be dead right now. He and his wife saved my life; they are heroes."

The crowd didn't know how to respond, until an anonymous person brought their hands together. A few people began clapping, and the room slowly filled with applause. Harald's face became red with nervousness, and he shifted around uncomfortably. Elsa looked at me to check if my story was true, and then smiled at Harald.

"You may speak, hero," she said as the applause awkwardly died down.

Harald put his weight on his right leg. "Your Majesty the Queen, what are you going to do about food? The Great Freeze froze nearly every crop and livestock animal in Arendelle, and people are going hungry. Any food that can be salvaged is too expensive for anyone to buy." The people murmured their matching sentiments.

Elsa took command and looked the whole crowd in the eye. On the cusp of a monumental official statement, she took a deep breath before starting. "I have a plan to solve the problems cause the Great Freeze, for which I accept full responsibility. All people whose property was damaged by the Freeze will be compensated with money from the Imperial Funds. Until next growing season, all tariffs on foodstuffs are hereby eliminated; the government will pay for all shipping, allowing the people to purchase foreign foods for the same price that they would normally buy domestic foods for. Nearby kingdoms have been informed of the food shortage, and a few merchant ships should be here in time for supper tonight."

The crowd was glued to her words, so she continued her declaration. "In addition, I recognize that, since my father's advising group dissipated with his passing, that I will need new help in governing the people. But I want it to help me govern the people well, so I will make it a representative body of 10 men and women, chosen via popular election by any adult who wishes to vote. I sincerely hope that this Board of the People will help us recover from the Freeze together."

A general sense of approval and satisfaction flowed through the masses. Elsa concluded, "If that answers your question, you may leave. Elections will be held within a week." The crowd trickled out of the door they had crashed down not but half an hour earlier. Every person left, even Harald, and finally only Kristoff, Anna, Elsa and I were left in the room. Anna got up from her seat and stood in front of Elsa, and stared at her sister with her jaw dropped.

"That… Elsa, that was amazing!" She ran up and yanked Elsa out of her throne by the wrist and embraced her with an enormous bear hug. Elsa, caught off guard, had the wind knocked out of her, but hugged Anna back. They split after a minute or so.

"Care to explain the hug?" Elsa smiled at Anna.

"It's just that- you were so in control, so powerful, so majestic! I didn't know you could do that! Heck, I didn't know that _anyone _could do that!"

"Well, she is the queen, you know," Kristoff chimed in. "It's kind of her job to be in control."

Anna rolled her eyes at him. "Not like that, dunderhead, you know what I mean." She beamed at Elsa again. "You managed those people almost better than you manage ice. You were so calm, so cool, so collected, while I was busy yelling my face off."

A little disappointment tainted Elsa's voice. "No, I wasn't. I was about to freeze everything again, I was so irritated…" She looked at her sister, and then grabbed her for a hug to rival the first one. Elsa kept her hands on Anna's shoulders when she stepped back. "If it wasn't for you, I would've. You saved Arendelle from me, again, for the second time in the last three days."

Kriftoff opened his mouth again. "You know, Queen Elsa, if Erik there hadn't shown up, you'd probably still be building up that ice wall you had going."

Both girls turned to me. I blushed a little. "I was kind of scared that, after three years, I would have no idea how to be royalty again. First day back, and I have to stop a palace riot? Are you this hard on all your new recruits?"

Elsa giggled. "Well, seeing as you're the second one, after Kristoff, I guess not. Maybe Kristoff needs to stop a few angry mobs before he can be the official Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer."

"Hey, stopping a riot is part of his job description!" Kristoff defended himself. "Make me stop some rioting ice, if you want to make it fair."

Elsa raised a mischievous eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"

"Why-" Kristoff remembered the snow monster that had guarded Elsa's ice castle days earlier. "Right, probably shouldn't have said that. Kinda forgot that you could, you know, make actual rioting ice."

Elsa gave Kristoff mercy lightheartedly. "Maybe I'll be easy on you, and just stick you in a room full of Olafs."

"Who's Olaf?" Anna was right, I did have a lot of catching up to do.

"A talking snowman Elsa made." Kristoff brushed past the explanation as if it wasn't remarkable. "Where is the little guy, anyways? I haven't seen him all day."

"You didn't think I just made up an Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer for no reason, did you?" Elsa said without any hint of annoyance or anger, "He's off doing your job, with Sven." I didn't ask who Sven was; if I had actually voiced every question I had, we would have been up in the throne room for the rest of the day.

Anna's stomach grumbled. "Whoo, all this political stuff has made me hungry. Anyone up for lunch? Or dinner, or whatever."

"I'll go get something from the merchant ships when they come," Kristoff offered. "We should get washed up. I know what just happened made me sweat, and I didn't even do much."

Elsa and Anna agreed, so Kristoff walked me over to the men's bathhouse as they left for the other. Kristoff and I both took a quick bath for the sake of cleaning ourselves, and then he showed me to a sauna that was already hot and steamy for our arrival. We sat for a few hours, and later had dinner with Anna and Elsa. By the end of the meal, I was tremendously tired. In the course of a day, I had gone from being the pitiful remains of an inmate to being the King. In the course of a day, Elsa had gone from not knowing I exist to rekindling that first connection we had three years prior.

Elsa showed me to a room that, thankfully, was not the first room I had slept in upon arriving in Arendelle. That night, for the first time in my life, I had a perfect, stress free sleep, without any worry about being sick, or what Elsa thought of me, or having enough food to not collapse from exhaustion the next day.


	16. Part 3, Chapter 16

XVI.

The next month sailed by so smoothly that at times I had to decide whether or not I was dreaming. I would wake up every morning in a clean, comfortable bed, and would be greeted to breakfast with people who cared about me. Elsa and Anna and Kristoff and I would chat until our mouths got dry, and then take a sip of water and keep talking. Every now and then, Olaf would stick his head in to give an update on something. I grew fond of him fairly quickly; with his humorously innocent personality, it would have been impossible not to. He was always helping people out, whether it was entertaining a diplomat while he or she waited to speak with Elsa or working with Kristoff and Sven, who I learned was Kristoff's reindeer, to haul ice.

Elsa and I would do our official work after lunch: receive comments from the people, sign important documents, or meet with the Board of the People. The Board of the People was an interesting group, because it did exactly what it was designed to do. Arendelle had elected a member from every section of the population. There was a farmer, and a banker, and a blacksmith, and a merchant, each one representing the needs of people in the same trade.

The hours after sunset never failed, though, to outshine the rest of the day. When we finished eating dinner, someone would always talk with someone else. Some nights I spent discussing the joys of the outdoors with Kristoff, others were loud debates with Anna about art and paintings. A couple of times, we even all sat together in a lounge room and took turns making each other laugh, and brought in Olaf for reinforcements if we weren't hysterical by the end of the night. Most nights, though, I spent sitting next to Elsa on her bed. We would always start out by trying to organize the events and feelings of that hectic week of Elsa's coronation, but the conversation would quickly dissolve into something lighter, and much happier. Even when we were determined to express our deepest, darkest feelings, we both left the conversation looking into the future with nothing but optimism. Of course, we had plenty of deep and dark things we could have wasted our time throwing at each other, but there was no point in depressing ourselves. In that first month, Elsa and I had grown our initial sparks of interest into a full-out fire.

One night after dinner, the four of us were sitting in the lounge room, itching to see the hilarious antics Anna had come up. She didn't have a smile on her face when she got up, though. She looked worried, and concerned, and started speaking timidly directly at Elsa.

"Elsa?"

"What's the matter, Anna? Is something wrong?" Elsa masked her confusion with a gentle, caring tone.

"I need something from you. Kristoff and I both do." Anna prompted him to stand up, and join her in the front of the room.

"What?" Elsa grew a little apprehensive, not knowing what to expect.

"We would like…" Anna started.

"Your blessing…" Kristoff glanced at Anna to make sure he was stepping in the right direction.

"Of our marriage." Anna concluded abruptly and, half hiding her face, studied Elsa to anticipate her response.

I didn't understand why Anna was being so nervous about marrying her boyfriend of one month; they'd spent more time together than Elsa and I had. "I'm sorry, I'm confused."

Elsa jumped when I spoke. "Where did you hear that?" She shook her head and turned to Anna. "Sorry, Anna," She rapidly backtracked on her comment when she realized that her poor choice of words had made dread start creeping up Anna's face. "Of course, Anna, of course! You'll have my blessings a thousand times over!"

Anna relaxed and smiled back at her sister. "Oh, thank you, Elsa! For a moment there, I thought you were going to-"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to say _those_ words again. But you know, you've known Kristoff for over a month now. I don't think you even knew Hans for an hour," Elsa said. Anna shuddered at the name Hans.

"Am I missing something here?" I couldn't put the bits and pieces together.

Elsa answered me with warmth directed at Anna. "No, you're not. Nothing important, anyways. She'll be married in two days. I'll get you a priest, and we'll send out the invitations as soon as possible."

Anna bounced up and down ecstatically, giddy with excitement, and Kristoff held her by the waist and spun her around in joy. Anna's words couldn't keep up with her thoughts.

"Oh, Elsa! It'll be perfect! We'll be all dressed up, and be all romantic when the priest reads us our vows, and have a ball after- oh, and we can't forget about the food! We can have cakes and pies and roast pork and all the guests will be dancing and eating and wishing us a happy marriage! We need to start planning right away- who are we going to invite?"

There was a general sense of excitement as we made a list of invitees for the ceremony. Being locked up for three years, and hidden away for the years before that, I only could contribute one name to the list. At the time, I felt a little unhelpful for that, but soon enough I would be regretting my one and only suggestion.

• • •

It was time. After two days of planning, it was finally time. In the finest ceremonial hall the Arendelle castle had, rows of chairs faced a central stage, upon which two throne-like chairs studded with emeralds stood, ready to accommodate the bride and groom. I took my seat in the front row, with Elsa to my left and a blank seat to my right. Before long, all of the invitees had settled in but one, who rushed in just as Kristoff made his way to his chair.

"Sorry I'm late, sorry," Joakim whispered to the members of the audience that were either disapproving of him or confused by him. He took his seat next to me in the front row, and leaned over to whisper in my ear, "So, you're a king too? Nice, very nice."

Elsa was entrenched in the ceremony as Anna walked out on stage, and I wanted to be too. I wasn't about to be distracted from a second set of marriage vows. I shushed my brother and pointed silently at the couple as the priest walked up to the stage.

The priest, an ancient, short, ugly man with fading hair to compensate for his booming voice, opened up a little book and began reading. His speech, as lively and resonating as it was, wavered as he glanced to the side every now and then. What on earth was he checking? He kept looking at me, or Elsa, or Joakim – that general direction. Regardless, the priest kept reading until Joakim burst out of his seat and began yelling at the man.

"You! Priest! Stop talking this instant! I refuse to let you marry this couple in such a drab hall! At least speak with some character to make up for this ridiculous decoration!"

I was, as everybody was, incredulous. What the hell was that? Elsa kept a calm face, but I could tell that she was fighting the urge to put Joakim's head in a block of ice. I faced my brother. "Joakim, would you please sit down?"

He raised his voice without actually looking at me. "No, I will not sit down. I demand that this couple gets the marriage they deserve!"

I stood up to get in his face, and said with a firm voice, "As King of Arendelle, I order you to sit down." I didn't get why he was acting so unruly; he was nothing like the caring, intelligent brother I remembered having as a child.

Joakim squinted his eyes at me in contempt. "Touchy, touchy! Well, seeing as you married into Arendelle, and I am, after all, a King myself, I think the only person in this room who can give me an order would be Queen Elsa. I'll sit down, not because you ordered me to, but for Queen Elsa's sake."

In the commotion Joakim caused, the priest had slipped out of the room unnoticed; what cause he had to leave was beyond me. Joakim had already killed the mood, and while the priest leaving should have been a major and unacceptable event, nobody seemed to notice. All eyes were on Joakim, who was sitting cockily and fitfully in his chair. Kristoff and Anna rose from their seats; a few people gave an awkward applause, but stopped when they saw that Anna was on the verge of tears. Kristoff walked Anna out of the hall, and I thought about following them. I tugged on Elsa's sleeve.

"Come on, it looks like you need to cheer you sister up."

Elsa wordlessly agreed with me, and spoke softly to the crowd before leaving. "The ceremony is over. Food and refreshments may be found in the dining hall." She glided over to the exit Anna had taken. I noticed for the first time that night that Joakim had come without his wife, but I had to cut my thought short to follow Elsa, who was already gone.

We found that Anna was in her room by the sounds of her crying. Elsa knocked on the closed doors.

"Anna?"

"Go away, Elsa."

Elsa found that the doors were unlocked, so we went in anyways. Anna was sitting on the side of her bed next to Kristoff, much like Elsa and I often did. She had her head buried in her hands, and Kristoff's arm was draped around her shoulder.

"I said go away." Anna didn't take her face out of her palms.

"It's okay, Anna. Be happy, you're married now." Elsa put a soft hand on Anna's shoulder.

"No I'm not. Not really." Anna shrugged Elsa's hand off without removing Kristoff's arm. "But you said you'd find me a priest! From all the priests in all of Arendelle, you had to pick the one that would leave just because some idiot interrupted the ceremony?" Anna accused.

Elsa hadn't noticed the priest leave either, apparently. She was speechless, so I spoke for her. "Come on, be reasonable-"

"You shut up," Anna immediately hissed at me. "Your buffoon of a brother isn't fit to rule a field of turnips, what possessed you to let him into my wedding?"

Kristoff pulled Anna in closer to him. "Let's step outside. You just need some fresh air." Elsa and I stepped aside to allow them to walk out. Anna stopped at the door to say one last thing to Elsa.

"You know what, Elsa? You gave our marriage your blessings, and then everything went wrong." Anna sniffled. She knew she was overreacting, and that she was about to cross a very sensitive line, but she continued anyways. "Even without ice, your blessing is just a curse."

I didn't see Anna or Kristoff for the rest of the night, and I only saw Elsa again after a lonely dinner in a dining hall full of people. I did my best to entertain the guests for as long as I had to, bringing in Olaf about half way through to help me out, before asking them to leave.

Late into the night, I found Elsa in her room, after melting the ice off of her frozen doorknob. Her entire room was thick with snow, and she was lying across the bed with her face in the mattress. I knew why.

"Elsa, I know Anna didn't mean what she said. She's just troubled right now, and needs you not to be. It'll blow over soon enough."

Elsa rolled over to her back to reveal gloved hands. "She was right, though. Even when I think I'm doing the right thing, I'm not. I just need to stay out of the way." She released a heavy sigh. "You know, conceal it."

"Elsa, Anna looks up to you. She needs for you to be strong, because she knows if you can handle it, then everything will turn out okay. Be strong, for her sake."

Elsa sat up. There were no tears in her eyes, but any that would've formed would have fallen to the ground as ice anyways. "Fine, I'll try. Where is she?"

"I can't say I've seen her or Kristoff since you last did."

Elsa gave me a disconcerted look. "It's almost midnight, shouldn't she be in her room, or in the halls near it?"

I shook my head. "I've checked the castle, I can't find her anywhere."

Elsa's expression morphed into one of panic, and she only could muster up three words. "Where's my sister?"


	17. Part 4, Chapter 17

**Part Four – After the Sequel**

XVII.

Anna's eyes drifted apart woozily as the blurred image in front of her clarified. She was in a dark, stony room, without any windows or doors from what she could see. Her vision was limited, since the only light in the place was a lone beeswax candle burning in the center of the room. The air was hot and humid and stank of moldiness. Anna didn't know where this strange place was, or why she was in it, so she tried to stand up.

She couldn't. Her legs and body and arms were bound with coarse rope to a rough wooden chair, and her mouth had a cloth strap tied across it. As she realized the position she was in, she began squirming, and became aware of a throbbing pain on the back of her skull. She let out a muffled groan, which was answered with a maniacal chuckle.

Anna stopped making noise to listen. Someone else was in the room with her. The man who had laughed spoke from directly behind her. "Having fun?" That voice sounded eerily familiar. The man untied Anna's muffle.

"King Joakim?"

He produced another sickening laugh. "So, you recognize me. Good job! Would you like a cookie?" The man who had rudely interrupted Anna's wedding slowly walked around to the other side of the candle to reveal himself, in full royal regalia.

Rage boiled inside of Anna, but she had no idea where she was or why she was there, so she held back a little. "If you have a chocolate one," she muttered sarcastically through clenched teeth.

Joakim was amused. "Okay, then! I'll check the cookie jar. Now, don't run off while I'm gone." He turned his back to Anna and started walking.

"Stop!" Anna burst to stop Joakim in his tracks. "Tell me where I am first!" He did stop, and spun around to look at Anna with that same malicious grin.

"Now, why would I do that? It would just ruin the fun, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

Anna screamed almost hysterically at him, "What do you mean, ruin the fun? Like ruin the fun of a marriage? Which, by the way, you got invited to by the brother _you_ helped imprison! Ruin the fun my foot! Tell me where I am!"

Joakim's smile dissolved into a frown of annoyance and general loathing. "It would be wise of you to control your temper, Princess."

Anna spat at him. "Why would I do that?"

The vile grin returned to Joakim's face. "I was hoping you'd say that." He faded into the darkness and kicked a chair over into the candlelight. An unconscious Kristoff fell to the stone floor with the chair he was tied to. His hair was matted with blood, and his muffle was a deep red. Joakim forcefully jerked the chair upright again, and brandished a dagger, which he held up to Kristoff's throat.

Anna stifled a squeal and held back her tears. She was confused, and concerned, but mostly furious. More than anything, she wanted to scream and kick and punch that stupid smirk off of Joakim's face, but the glint of the blade pressed against her husband's skin convinced her not to.

Joakim's smile grew wider at Anna's silence. "I see we have come to an understanding. Isn't it amazing what a little piece of metal can do to someone's attitude?"

Anna fidgeted with the ropes that bound her in a vain effort to covertly untie them. It wasn't vain for secrecy, as Joakim had no idea she was trying to escape, but because the ropes were knotted to the point that someone would have had to cut her out of them.

Joakim adjusted his posture to appear more intimidating, keeping his knife pointed at Kristoff. "And now that I have your attention, I get to have my rant. Ooh, how exciting!" He made sure Anna's anger had melted into fear before proceeding. "There's a very good reason that I interrupted your wedding. I'll get to that, your wedding, I mean. You see, it was just another cog in my master plan, to rid the world of Erik, and Elsa."

Anna's dropped jaw and bulging eyes betrayed the terror that Joakim had bred inside of her. He relished the feeling, and so dragged out a pause before elaborating further.

"I didn't ever think I would want them dead. Heck, for the longest time I was trying to _protect_ Erik from his sickness, and I didn't even know Elsa existed until their marriage. For years, father kept telling me in private how we needed to get rid of Erik, but I always said that I could fix his fire problems. I was so naïve back then, to think Erik could be saved. But father always said yes, and was always nice to Erik per my request. I looked out for the creep until the day he left Fordane for Arendelle.

"It was after Erik had left that I realized just how much of a pain he had been, because I suddenly didn't have to deal with him anymore. I could just spend time with my father, and my wife, and study without having to sit Erik by a fire. It was two months later before I even thought about Erik again, and it was because father and I were called over for a meeting with the King and Queen of Arendelle." Joakim's smile curled up at Anna's twitching; she knew what was coming next.

"And you let him be jailed," Anna accused in a hollow voice.

Joakim waved his dagger around Kristoff's throat. "Let's not get touchy, now. I have a feeling your lover here wouldn't like to wake up with a slit throat." Anna slumped her shoulders to match her voice, and Joakim continued, "Father let him be jailed. I felt rather uneasy about it at the time, and for a few months afterwards. But then father… passed. It was a very traumatic experience, and it changed me. For the next two and a half years, as I ruled as King of Fordane, I kept thinking of the things father had said about Erik. And a few weeks ago, I had an epiphany.

"Erik had been, as my father had said, a nuisance, but he was also a threat. I never really had thought about it before, but for years Erik could have literally burned all of Fordane to the ground. He was a murderer – he had killed our mother with fire, and I've heard he almost did the same to your sister. There was a very good reason for Erik to be locked up; he was a danger to everyone.

"When I heard news of the Great Freeze, I was shocked. There was _another _freak like Erik?" Joakim snorted. "I couldn't believe it. Not only was there another freak, that other freak was his wife. Those two together could cause so much havoc, and hurt so many people. I had nightmares of a world engulfed in flames and ice at the same time. I knew what I had to do."

Anna bit back angry tears. "So you became an even bigger monster than Erik or Elsa could have been?" she snarled. "That makes perfect sense." Anna had no trouble shutting up, though, when Joakim slowly pressed the knife into Kristoff's neck and drew a little blood.

"Be quiet, it's rude to interrupt." The irony turned any remaining anger Anna had into anxiety. "I knew I had to kill Erik and Elsa. Believe me, it's all with good intentions. I care about the people. I knew I had to kill them, because their two lives are worth sacrificing for the thousands they would hurt in the future. And I knew it had to be me who killed them, because anybody I could have told would have freaked out and gotten Fordane in a war with Arendelle. I sent my wife away to a month's vacation; she's too sentimental about these things, and she knew Erik well. I didn't want her to feel more pain than was necessary.

"I had no idea how I was going to carry out my plan, though, until this man showed up one day at the castle doors." The ugly, old man who had made Elsa angry in the riot a month earlier emerged from the darkness. Anna was confused at the connection the man had to Joakim until he took his straw hat off.

"The priest?" Anna murmured.

"Once again, Anna, your skills of recognition amaze me. Remind me to give you that cookie. Yes, this man, whose name I'll keep private for his sake, is the one who helped me formulate my master plan. He said he had been the apprentice of an oracle who had met with my uncle from my mother's side about Erik's powers. He said that he knew how to destroy Erik and Elsa, and save the people once and for all. He explained to me how Erik and Elsa were two opposing sides of the same force, and if they came into contact, they would annihilate each other. I reminded him that they were married, but he told me they would have to want to kill each other for their curses to truly be eliminated.

"At that point, we created a plan together. I would like to detail to you every last bit of it, but alas, some parts of it are still to be executed, and I don't want to jeopardize what I have already built up. I will say this: you've seen what we've been doing. The riot in the palace, your wedding, they were all leading up to this point. Now, you're probably wondering what you sitting in that chair has to do with my plan to save humanity."

Anna coughed meekly. She was noticing the throb in the back of her head more and more with time. "Where am I?"

"You know what? You've been a good sport so far, so I'll answer your question. You're in a prison tower in Fordane. Erik and Elsa will inevitably come looking for you, and when they follow the obvious hints I left behind in Arendelle, they'll show up in this very tower. Elsa will be mad, and Erik will be mad for Elsa's sake. I'll provoke Erik a little, and he'll shoot his fire at me, and I'll sidestep to dodge it, and oops – what do you know? Erik burns Elsa's dear sister Anna to a crisp." Joakim hissed on the word crisp. "They'll take care of the rest. Elsa will kill Erik for killing you, and Erik will kill Elsa in self-defense. The world will be rid of their dangerous curses for good."

Anna would have been screaming her head off at Joakim, but she was preoccupied with crying her panicked heart out. Joakim looked down at her tear-streaked face, savoring the complete control he had over the situation, and Anna herself.

"I'm sorry I have to be the villain here, I really am. I know I was rather unpleasant to you just now, but I had to be, to get you in the right mood for when your sister and my brother show up. But someone has to do the dirty work, for the greater good of the people." Joakim turned his glance to the man whose throat his dagger was pointed at. The glimmer of hope he had given Anna disappeared. "As for your husband, we just picked him up as a souvenir. He was conveniently next to you, so we let him tag along, incase we wanted to use him to break your spirits." Anna cringed as his devilish smile unfurled again. "I would say that you're just about broken beyond the point of rebellion now. I guess we have no need for your dear husband anymore, then, do we?" Joakim strode over to Anna and tied her muffle back on. "Don't worry, we can have some fun once he's gone," he cackled into her ear, which he proceeded to lick on his way away from the side of her head. "Lots of fun, just the two of us."

The ugly priest opened a door previously hidden in the darkness to reveal the black sky, and a straight drop to the ground below from the unnervingly high tower. Anna kicked and thrashed and expelled smothered screams as the King of Fordane kicked her husband and the chair he was tied to into the pitch-black night, and didn't stop until she heard a faint thud.


	18. Part 4, Chapter 18

XVIII.

Elsa was locked up in her frozen room for almost a full day after Anna's wedding, with a door so iced over that any part I melted the ice from would refreeze the instant I moved to a different section. I had ordered a full search of the castle, and of Arendelle, and every guard in the kingdom had been dispatched for the cause.

Most of the morning I spent trying to keep my head straight. I felt horrible at losing the close friend Anna had become over the last month. But I kept reminding myself that it was worse for Elsa, and that she would need me to be strong. I cared about her, so I would have to curb my own wild thoughts for her sake. I couldn't tell her to be strong and support Anna without doing the same for her.

The day after Anna's wedding, a guard came to me with a sealed letter addressed to Elsa. I was about to open it, but stopped myself from breaking the wax seal. Elsa should be able to read whatever was addressed to her. I studied the wax seal, and recognized it. I told Elsa the news through her door.

"Elsa? You have a letter. Would you like to read it?"

"Is it from Anna?" Elsa sounded hopelessly depressed.

"No, it's from my brother, King Joakim. It has the Fordane royal seal and everything."

"Then you read it."

I had no other ideas on how to convince Elsa to open the door, so I broke the wax seal and began reading to myself.

_ Dearest Queen Elsa,_

_ I'm sure you're wondering where your sister is. _

I crammed the paper in my pocket and began vigorously melting the ice on Elsa's door. This letter was really for her to read. "Elsa, I'm coming in, with the letter."

"Don't."

"It's about your sister." The ice on the door suddenly began melting faster, and within seconds I was standing next to Elsa, who was sitting on the edge of her bed in much the same way her sister had been the night before. I didn't look at her face, and ignored the cold as much as I could. I pulled out the letter and, determined to deliver it in its entirety, began reading aloud.

_Dearest Queen Elsa,_

_ I'm sure you're wondering where your sister is. Well, I have some good news for you, then. I know exactly where she is; she's in the Kingdom of Fordane, as am I. I want to believe she and her husband and escaped from Arendelle to find a better life in a far off kingdom._

_The sad truth is, though, that Anna, being as she is a part of the Arendelle royal family, cannot be trusted. As far as I know, Anna and Kristoff could be spies. Therefore, I have no choice but to imprison her. I may have her executed tomorrow if she admits to having bad intentions to the Kingdom of Fordane, which I'm sure she will with a little torture here and there. _

_Unless, of course, you give me reason to think otherwise, and save your sister's life._

_Say hi to Erik for me, will you?_

_-King Joakim_

When I finally looked up from the sickening page, I found that I was the one trembling with anger, sadness, anxiety, and just about every other unsettling emotion that exists. Elsa, on the other hand, wore a completely resolved expression, as firm as a block of stone. She stood up tearlessly, and grabbed my sleeve on her way out of her room.

She spoke through grit teeth as she dragged me out with her. "I'm going to get my sister back."

• • •

We didn't take a boat to Fordane. No, Elsa was in too steady a flow to wait on any boat to start sailing, or to simply stand around on deck doing nothing while the boat moseyed along to Fordane. She strode quickly and firmly and powerfully, with my sleeve clenched in her right fist, out of her room, out of the castle, and straight past the ships' docks. I became worried when Elsa showed no signs of slowing down at the last dock in the lineup.

"Uhh… Elsa, shouldn't we get on a boat?" Then, as the edge of an empty dock approached us, "What, are you expecting to swim to Fordane or something?"

Elsa didn't turn back, didn't respond to me, and didn't stop when the dock did. Her foot bound off of the wooden platform, and the water of the fjord solidified underneath her feet. I stumbled onto the growing patch of ice, which clarified to form a streamlined racing canoe sort of shape. Elsa let go of my sleeve, and tilted her head slightly back at me.

"Hold on."

"Hold on? To what- why hold on?"

Elsa pulled her hands backwards, and a flurry of ice suddenly shoved the back of the canoe into motion. Elsa thrust her hands forwards, and we were racing at incredible speeds, barely touching the surface of the water. For the first half of the ride, I just sat like a sack of potatoes, marveling at what Elsa had just done. When I accepted reality, I turned my back to Elsa, and put my arms together. Being careful not to melt the back of the canoe, I fired up a swirling, dancing jet stream of flames to accelerate the canoe to astronomical speeds. The trip from Arendelle to Fordane usually took a day or two; in Elsa's canoe, we were at the shores of Fordane by nightfall.


	19. Part 4, Chapter 19

XIX.

I stopped propelling when the boat shattered into a million pieces. Not from the heat of my fire, or anything Elsa did. It was a rock on the jagged shore of Fordane that finally stopped the canoe, and sent Elsa and me flying onto the beach. Luckily, we had avoided the sharp rocks and landed in a sandy section of the beach, about seventy feet inland. I got to my feet as quickly as I could, and in a flash Elsa was gripping my sleeve again.

"You used to live here," Elsa said flatly, "Where would Anna be imprisoned?" I probably could have convinced myself that Elsa was overwhelmingly sad, or angry, but she didn't actually look that way. She was nothing but determined; determined to get her sister back, and determined to not let her emotions cause another Great Freeze. I was honestly wondering why the beaches weren't covered in frost, and on the same track, why I hadn't felt my core heat up or had that strange heartburn the whole time Anna was gone.

The prison cells and dungeon of Fordane were on the side of the castle opposite to us, so we walked. We walked briskly, of course, to get to Anna faster, but moved slowly enough to keep each other calm. Just about any guard with eyes probably saw us, but we were never stopped. The continuity of it all, and Elsa's silence, gave me time to think. I realized why Elsa was as expressionless as she was; she was in a crisis. I thought back to those wretched days I had spent on the North mountain over a month earlier. She was in a crisis, and that crisis had focused all of her thoughts onto one point once she had Joakim's letter to focus upon.

I glanced at Elsa periodically. She showed no signs of tiring, but there was no way of actually knowing if she was getting worn down or not. She was wearing that same dress she had on at Anna's marriage, which she had, upon wearing it for the first time, transformed into an ice dress. After a day of stress, however, the elegant garment had been disfigured into a sandy mess, with swaths of the intricate lacework smearing into plates of frozen fabric.

Elsa broke her silence when we were standing in front of the largest prison tower, on the other waterfront of Fordane's castle, immediately adjacent to a shipyard full of mammoth sailboats and beat up little rafts. The stone tower rose straight up into the darkening sky; it was a solid, uninterrupted pillar, save the thick wooden door at the bottom and a distant wooden door on the top directly above the shipyard. I assumed that the door on top was merely for decoration, as it obviously led to nowhere but a hundred foot drop.

We walked with the same pace we had been walking before to the door of the tower. Elsa tried pulling open both doors by their rusty metal handles, but of course, they were locked. It was a prison, after all. I didn't know what made Elsa want to try out the tower for her sister instead of the dungeon, or even some holding cell elsewhere in the castle, but she seemed intent on getting into the tower. She banged on the doors and tried kicking them. When that failed, she took a step back, and rubbed her hands together. A loud crack later, and the doors were not only open; they were destroyed. Their remains were strewn on the ground, along with the shards of ice that had just created them.

With the end now in sight, Elsa marched purposefully onwards, up a stony staircase with moss in the cracks. I followed her, and kept a flame burning in the palm of my hand to see ahead in the dark stairwell. Elsa did nothing but climb until we reached the top of the staircase, and she stood awkwardly in front of the only door there for a long time. Her hand found its way to the door handle, but she pulled it back almost instantly upon contact. She held a half formed fist half an arm's length away from her, and then knocked on the prison door.

"Anna?"

"Come in, the door's unlocked." The voice that spoke was definitely not Anna's. It was a booming voice, and a male one at that. It sounded as upsettingly familiar to me as it did to Elsa, but neither of us could tell to whom the voice belonged. Elsa carefully grabbed the door handle, and the door creaked open. We walked in; I jumped and spun my head around when the door slammed behind us, and when I turned back around I was greeted by Anna, bloody and bruised and faint, tied up to a chair, illuminated only by a sole candle in the center of the room.

Elsa was hugging her sister in a heartbeat. She embraced her with all her might, on her knees, sobbing softly into her shoulder, as I made my way over to the chair.

Anna's weary eyes peeled open. "Elsa?" She was barely able to get the word out of her mouth, but she still managed to grow a slight smile on her face.

Elsa pulled back from her hug and sniffled, with her hands still on Anna's shoulders. "It's okay, Anna, you're going to be alright. Erik's here, and so am I, and we're going to get you out of here."

"Oh, Erik's here! How wonderful, now we can get this party started." Elsa and I whipped our heads to find Joakim staring us down with a malicious toothy grin. Anna had emitted a little whimper when Joakim spoke, and her chest was heaving with short, puffy, disturbed breaths.

This man, the same person who had so caringly looked after me as a child, who until Anna's wedding was as much an ideal person as I could think of, was now the monster I was ashamed to call my brother. I was furious; he had hurt Anna. He hadn't limited it to the relatively humane physical damage, either. He had damaged Anna mentally, to the point where the very sound of his voice could force her into an anxiety attack. And by hurting Anna, he had hurt Elsa; she was clutching the shuddering Anna as tightly as she could, as much to calm herself down as to relax Anna. But it wasn't enough, as the cracks in between stones in the floor began sprouting ice that spread across the room. A freezing wind began blowing in the circular room, killing the candlelight and plunging everyone into darkness. I remembered my fire and my anger, and lit a flame in my palm to see my brother with cautionary hands held out in front of him.

"Now, listen to me, Erik. Don't jump to conclusions; I can explain. Just hear me out."

I was livid. I didn't need to hear an explanation; what Joakim had done was clear as day. Without thinking, I hurled the flame in my hand at his loathsome little face. "You rat!"

I had obviously missed, because when Joakim came back into view under a relit fire, he had a severe lack of burns. "I'm not the one who hurt Anna! I was waiting for you to come so we could _save _her."

His words made the fire stick to my hand. "What?" I thought about the logic of Joakim's claim. "Then why did you wait for us? You're the King, for God's sake, you can release Anna whenever you like!"

"What? And leave her in such a terrible state in the open elements? I needed you two to transport her back to Arendelle."

Joakim's argument was crumbling, and so was my willingness to listen to him. "You are a _King_, you can get a boat! Not to mention medical care or a proper room to stay in!" I shot at him and relit my hand. "You're lying!"

Joakim produced a maddeningly aggravating smile. "I know, I was just buying time."

He dove to the left, and I followed him, blasting flame balls as fast as I could. I kept missing, so I kept shooting; I lost track of where I was, I was so focused on burning that smile off of Joakim's face. I wasn't really paying attention to where I was aiming, and I finally stopped attacking when one of my shots was met with met with a cloud of ice that vaporized upon contact with the fire. In my fit of rage, I had relit the candle in the middle of the room, and, unfortunately, could see Elsa gaping at me with panic.

"What are you doing?" She stood up, and the floor and walls began growing sharp with icicles. She walked towards me. "Were you trying to burn her?"

"No, I wasn't! Elsa, I was out of control-"

"Are you with your brother on this?" Elsa was hysterical, and marching up to me with a terrible look of accusation. "Of course you are! You have been for three years now, haven't you?"

"Elsa!" I grabbed her wrists after checking to make sure they had sleeves on them. "Snap out of it! Trust me, it was an accident, I was out of control, and I'm sorry. But that's not important right now; we need to get your sister out of here."

Elsa didn't get a chance to calm down. Joakim cleared his throat jokingly from behind Anna's chair. "Speaking of sisters, Erik, why don't you allow Anna to tell you what a fun time we had, hmm?"

"What do you mean, fun time?" Elsa was still a little insane, but she directed her madness at Joakim instead of me.

Joakim ran his hand through the dried blood in Anna's hair. "Go ahead, Anna, tell your sister what a fun time we had." He knocked Anna's chair to the ground so that her eyes were pointed straight up. He gave another awful smile, the smile that severed any connection he might have still had to the kind brother I used to know.

Elsa's mind was all over the place. "What do you mean, fun time?" she repeated with more force. She examined her sister and her captor with darting eyes. She noticed that Anna's clothes were torn and tattered in places, and Joakim had scratch marks on his cheek. There were four, as if Anna had clawed him while…

Realizing what he had done to her sister, and to what extent he had damaged her, Elsa's face contorted with rage and disgust. Joakim probably would have made some vile remark, and kept grinning his sickening grin, had it not been for a crisp blue cloud that penetrated his neck. He grabbed his throat and began coughing loudly. He wasn't bleeding, but as Elsa took a firm stance and brought her trembling hand up, ice flowed out of his gaping mouth, down his chin, and around his neck. He was hacking violently, flailing his arms and struggling to breathe. Elsa, with a scowl of unadulterated loathing, began curling her quivering hand into a fist. Joakim's coughs slowed to a constricted choking sound as the ice tightened around his throat. Elsa kept her hand slightly open until Joakim was on his knees, his face blue from either the ice or the suffocation, and then killed his final gasps at air with a closed fist. He fell to the ground next to the still burning candle, and the room was silent.

Nobody spoke. Anna was too tired to, and I was still trying to absorb what had just happened. Even when a little, old ugly man sprung from the darkness and just as quickly disappeared through the main door, nobody spoke. I took a few cautious steps forwards to look at Elsa, who hadn't moved, and whose hand was still clenched in a fist half an arm's length from her body. She was mortified. I followed her horrified stare to Anna, and then glanced at Joakim's corpse by the central candle. My mind clicked violently.

Elsa had spent thirteen years locked up in her room trying to protect the ones she loved. She hid herself so that Anna wouldn't know of her dangerous powers. Even after she had begun using her powers, she was weary of anything that could make the people scared of her, especially after the Great Freeze and the mob in throne room. In her time as queen, Elsa was determined to show the world, including Anna, that her ice was not just a weapon.

She would have a hard time arguing that. Elsa knew this, and the dread on her face showed she knew why. Anna had just witnessed her sister's ice murder a man.


	20. Part 4, Chapter 20

XX.

Elsa stood petrified for a good quarter of an hour. After a while, I made my way to Anna, who was sleeping peacefully, even if that peace was brought solely by exhaustion. I recalled what Mikael had told me during our escape from prison a month ago. Yes, horrible things had just happened, but it was no time to panic. What was done was done. I needed to focus. I grabbed the back of the rough wooden chair she was in and pulled it upright, and began picking at the knotted rope tying Anna to the chair. When I decided that the ropes were hopelessly tangled, I scanned the room for something sharp. I went to Joakim first, but he had nothing in his pockets but a few slips of paper. I crammed these into my own pockets and resolved to read them later, but for the moment I needed something sharp. I turned to the only other person in the tower who was both alive and awake.

"Elsa?"

She kept staring at her sister, her hand still in a fist. She didn't move a muscle; she didn't make a sound.

"Elsa, I need something to cut Anna's ropes with. Something sharp. Do you have any ideas?"

No response, no movement.

I realized that I was only seeing whatever was in that small circle illuminated by the candle in the middle; the periphery of the room remained unexplored. I grew a small flame in my hand to use as a torch, which suddenly made Elsa break her silence.

"Don't." Her voice was pained and hollow.

I turned to her. "Don't what?"

Elsa was shaking. "Don't burn Anna."

"I'm just using it for light, so I can find something to cut her out of those ropes with." I began walking along the outer wall of the room to demonstrate.

She spoke again, with more volume and panic. "Don't hurt Anna."

"I won't, trust me." I came across a small dagger lying on the floor, and extinguished my fire to pick it up. I walked back into the light. "See? Now I can cut her-"

"Don't cut her!" Elsa shouted and took a step forward, finally putting down her fist.

"Cut her loose!" I blurted, and Elsa stopped moving. "Now I can cut her loose." Elsa calmed down a bit, so I sliced through the ropes while I had the chance. I caught Anna to keep her from plopping to the ground, and gathered her gently in my arms. She was a mess. Her wrists and ankles were raw and peeling from the tight ropes, as if they had been tied, untied, and tied again. She was bloody and bruised and in torn clothes; I couldn't bring myself to show Elsa her sister. I wordlessly walked out of the chamber in the same way we had come in, hoping Elsa was following me down the stone staircase but not actually checking if she actually was. When the stairs ended, I left the tower and walked right up to the nearest boat in the adjacent shipyard, a medium-sized sailboat that appeared to be in decent condition. I called to the only person on the deck of the boat.

"Excuse me, sir? May I ask where this ship is headed?"

The gruff man looked up from the sacks of potatoes he was stacking in a corner. "And who are you to ask?"

"The king and queen of Arendelle," Elsa said, not as calmly as she probably would have liked to. I was glad to know she was still there, and had pulled herself together enough to say something sane.

The man scoffed. "Yeah, and I'm the king of Fordane."

"I'm his brother," I said with a twinge of reluctance.

"Of course you are. Look, why don't you two go dump your corpse on some other boat?" The man pointed to the rest of the shipyard. "The captain's already taken in some almost dead guy who fell tied to a chair from the sky into our sails, the last thing we need is another body to keep track of."

Just then, another man stomped up from under the deck. "He's awake!"

"He is? Did you find out anything yet?" the first man said.

"Naw, just that his name is Kristoff. He hasn't said much else."

I jumped so suddenly that I almost dropped Anna. "I know that man!" I blurted out. The two men looked at me strangely, and I said more collectedly, "Please, let us go see him. I'm holding his wife."

The men didn't respond, and disappeared into the deck. I gestured to Elsa with my shoulder, and we tried to follow the men into the boat. We had hardly been on the ship a few seconds, though, before another man walked up onto the deck. He had small eyes and a thick grey beard and a potbelly, and judging from his hat, he was the captain of the ship.

The man tilted his head to one side. "May I ask why, exactly, you are on the deck of my ship?" He wasn't angry, just confused.

"We… overheard some of your crew mention that you have a man named Kristoff on board," I clarified. "I think he might be someone we know."

The captain's face brightened up. "Well, it's about time someone showed up! I swear, this man fell straight out of the sky, into my sails, and I've had the worst time trying to figure out who he is." He reached out for a handshake, but upon thinking about how my hands were full brought his hand awkwardly back to his side. "And who do I have the pleasure of inviting onto my ship?"

"Erik, and Elsa." I left off our titles to avoid the skepticism I had engendered in those other two crewmen. "I'm sorry, I've forgotten my manners. I never asked you your name."

"You can just call me Klaus." He was still itching for a customary handshake, but Elsa was in no mood to scratch that itch for him, and my hands were still occupied. He beckoned us forwards with a wave of a hand. "Come on, follow me. I'll show you to this Kristoff fellow."

We walked with him through a hallway lined with nondescript doors, and he stopped at one of them. He cracked the door open.

"Kristoff?" he called.

"Yes, captain?" Kristoff didn't sound like he'd fallen onto a ship from the sky, a description that I had just began questioning the logic of.

"You have some visitors." Klaus opened the door fully, and brought all four of us into view.

Kristoff was sitting upright in a small bed, with a few pillows cushioning his back and a blanket up to his waist. His regular clothes were piled up in a corner, and he was wearing a comfortable looking woolen shirt instead. His appearance from the shoulders up was a different story. His hair was disheveled and caked with blood, and his face was stained with streaks of the stuff. His neck sported a red and pink stripe, as if he had been cut there. His eyes widened upon seeing us enter the room.

"Erik? Elsa?" He sounded genuinely surprised, and then genuinely worried when his focus moved to the woman I was carrying. "Anna?"

"Ah, so it looks like you all do know each other," Klaus said. "I'll just leave you alone, then, it sounds like you have some catching up to do. Just holler if you need anything, alright?"

Elsa collapsed the moment Klaus closed the door behind him. She buried her face in her hands, sat on her heels, and cried. "I'm sorry," she choked.

She wasn't talking to anybody, but Kristoff must have thought she was addressing him. His eyes darted over to his wife, who I was just about to lay down on the bed in front of him. His hand grabbed the side of his head, and he filed his fingers through his hair as he assumed the worst. "Is she… is she…" He couldn't say the word.

"No, no, she's just asleep, she'll be fine," I reassured him. He noticed Anna's chest rising and falling with breath, and relaxed a little. I lay Anna across the bed, in his lap instead of at the foot of the bed. He gently brought his hand up to her face.

"I'm sorry, Anna. I'm sorry." Elsa took my gaze off of her sister. She was still on the floor, sitting on her heels. Little icicles were forming on her hands from her tears.

I took the few steps needed to get me next to her, and held out my hand. "Come on, Elsa, get up. Anna's fine, see for yourself. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Elsa kept one hand on her face, but sent the other one up to grab mine. I pulled my sleeve down enough to cover my skin, just incase, and stood her upright. She finally removed the other hand from her eyes, and with her now unblocked vision stared lovingly at her sister. "I'm sorry, Anna."

Without thinking, I hugged Elsa. She was caught off guard and stumbled into me when I grabbed her, but that only made me feel the need to hug her tighter. She wasn't very comfortable, as if the hug was unwelcome, but she didn't try to wriggle herself loose, so I kept hugging. I thought out loud.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Elsa. Nothing at all. You saved your sister's life, for crying out loud, you're a hero."

"How can you say that?" Elsa finally broke out of the hug. She looked straight at me with cold blue eyes. "You should be scared of me. Anna will be scared of me. I'm a hero? No, that was just a side effect. I'm a _murderer_."

"Elsa-"

"I'm a monster." She cut me off, and the floor around her feet began frosting over. "Anna was right; even when I used my ice as a blessing, even when I tried to save someone's life…" She looked down at her upturned palms. "I couldn't do it without ending another one in the process. Anna's seen what I can do. It's not pretty." She brought her eyes back up to me. "How are you not mad at me? I killed your brother."

"Don't call him that. After all the things Joakim did… you did the right thing. Trust me, Elsa; you couldn't pay me to be mad at you right now. Or scared of you, for that matter. I trust you, no matter what you think of your ice. And I know the same goes for Anna. You know how I know?"

"How?" Elsa dared me to have a solid argument as to why Anna and I should still love her. For better or for worse, I had one last resort I had been saving up since the first time Elsa and I talked after the Great Freeze.

"Because you've killed someone before."

Elsa couldn't decide between being incredulous and offended. She put her hand on her chest in the same way one does when pretending to be in disbelief, except that she wasn't pretending at all. "No, I haven't! What are you talking about?"

"My uncle Mikael. I didn't know he even existed until three years ago, when he got thrown into the same jail cell as me. The day we escaped was the day before your coronation. The next day, he got trapped in a cave by a blizzard…" I realized I was being too blunt I began feeling emotions I hadn't even felt back when the events causing them were actually happening. "I couldn't save him. I barely even saved myself; there was no way I could have saved him. He's probably still down there, in that cave…"

Elsa was mortified. What did I expect? I forced myself to remember that I was trying to make Elsa feel better, and detailing how she murdered my uncle wasn't exactly helping. The room began piling with snow. Elsa glared at her hands, and stuffed them away in her armpits, and made like she was going to leave the room.

I grabbed her arm. Desperate to keep her from escaping, I said things I would have said under no other circumstances. "Remember what happened the last time you ran away because of your powers?" I might have sounded rude, or like I was accusing her of something, but I hoped anyways that she knew of my good intentions. "What I'm trying to say is, all that stuff with Mikael happened, and I still love you." My stomach dropped a little when I noticed I had said the wrong word, but I knew the slip up wasn't a lie. I concluded, "Anna still loves you. Isn't that proof enough?"

"No." Elsa sounded cold, but not because of the ice that was beginning to crystalize on the ceiling. "Anna didn't see that one happen right in front of her face. I spent far too long trying to keep Anna safe from my curse. I get one chance to protect her by _using_ my powers instead of by hiding them, and all I did was scar her for life."

"She won't be scarred, why would she? It's not like you hit her-"

"A few feet off and I would have." The entire room was iced over by now.

"But Anna won't care. She didn't care that you actually hit her a month ago, did she?"

"How do you know about that?" Elsa refused to be consoled.

"You can't expect me to live with you for a month and not pick up on a few things." I was ready to continue my quest to make Elsa feel less conflicted, but was stopped by a weak, strained, but immensely happy voice.

"Thanks, Elsa." Anna was awake.


	21. Part 4, Chapter 21

XXI.

"Anna? You're awake?" Elsa glanced at her sister's condition, and immediately wished she hadn't. "You need to sleep, you must be tired."

Anna made a vain effort to sit upright. When she plopped right back into Kristoff's arms, he scooted to one side of the bed and sat his wife up next to him. Anna managed to pull the blanket over her legs with a throat-scarring cough to keep herself warm from the ice Elsa was applying to the room. "I'm sorry, Elsa."

I found that Elsa was repeating my conversation with her to Anna, from the other point of view. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Anna," she said. "Nothing at all. I'm the one who failed to keep you safe."

Anna gave her sister a warm, reassuring smile. "But I really am sorry Elsa. What happened at my wedding- it wasn't your fault, and I blamed it on you. I said some pretty nasty things to you, and I'm sorry." Elsa looked ready to tell Anna why she shouldn't be the one saying sorry, but Anna had one more sentence to say. "Do you accept my apology?"

Kristoff and I felt sort of intrusive at that point, as Elsa and Anna looked lovingly at each other. Anna did in a few words what I had been unable to do in a whole conversation; the room thawed, and Elsa smiled.

"Only if you accept mine," Elsa finally replied.

"Well, I do. So there. And Elsa?"

"Yes?"

"I've been through a lot in the last twenty four hours, and I could probably use a hug."

Elsa wasted no time in getting to the bedside, and in embracing her sister as hard as she could without being uncomfortable. Anna hugged her back with equal vigor, and the two glowed as every tension of that night dissolved into thin air. There was more magic in that hug, more beauty and more power, than Elsa or I could ever hope to match with fire and ice.

• • •

Eight months passed. Many things happened in those eight months, but nothing on the same level as the events that capped them.

On the first morning on board Klaus's ship, we set sail for Arendelle, and made it safely there a day later. Kristoff, Anna, Elsa and I had struck up conversation with the quirky Captain Klaus, as we came to call him, on the trip back, and he remained a good personal friend of ours, occasionally running royal errands to Fordane and occasionally being invited to dinner. A few days after we got back to Arendelle, we received news that Joakim's wife had assumed control of Fordane as Queen, and was pregnant with an heir to succeed her. I had to wonder if that heir was really Joakim's son, but it was somewhat nice to know that the government of Fordane wouldn't crumble with Joakim's death.

Every now and again, I would have nightmares about the night of Anna's failed wedding, but they were casual nightmares, the kind you talk about over breakfast. Anna and Elsa had a few as well, and even if he didn't want to admit it, Kristoff probably did too. Nobody had any panic attacks or anything, though; in fact, here were times in those eight months that rivaled the month before Anna's first attempt at a wedding in terms of a general sense of happiness. Everyone was certain that Anna would be comfortable with a second shot at marriage within the year, and everyone was certain that it would work out this time.

Other than the odd bit of news or an especially excited meeting of the Board of the People meeting, not much else happened. The whole debacle with Anna's ruined marriage started off the eight months, and afterwards…

I opened up a door to Elsa's room from the inside, so that Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf could come in. Nobody said a word, not even the usually talkative snowman, because we were all smiling. There was no reason not to be. I gently clicked the door shut and followed them over to Elsa, who was sitting in her bed with pillows piled up behind her back.

And in her arms was a baby boy, swaddled in fuzzy little woolen blanket. All that peeped out of the bundle was his face, a beautiful little face with the brightest brown eyes I had ever seen. My heart swelled with joy and pride and excitement and every emotion in between. I forced myself to stop looking at my child and take a glance at Elsa, whose face mirrored mine in the sheer magnitude of her smile.

"What should we name him?" Elsa brought her finger to the child's cheek, and he giggled amiably. Elsa giggled back at him.

I thought about Elsa's question seriously. Here was this person, who I had just met, yet I was ready to spend the rest of my life with. But it wasn't the same kind of readiness I had felt when I first met Elsa; it was just like I could talk to him for hours, whether or not he knew what I was saying. I felt like he was going to teach me a little something about being a person, whether or not he knew he was doing it. It was a different kind of readiness, a kind I had only felt once before.

"Mikael." I realized that I had been looking at the baby again, and turned my chin up to face Elsa. I repeated more confidently, "We should name him Mikael."

She agreed, but she didn't say it out loud. She didn't have to say anything out loud. She didn't have to say that she was ready for the future, a future with a child and a kingdom and a family. She didn't have to say that she couldn't feel like a monster holding such a little bundle of joy, and knowing that she helped create it. She didn't have to say that she loved Anna, or me, or baby Mikael. The best part was, I didn't have to say anything either. I just stared into her crystal blue eyes, and she into my swirling red ones.

*****Author's Note*****

**So that's it. Looking back, there are so many things I could have done better, but whatever. It was my first story; I'll cut myself some slack. If you liked it (I'm assuming that, if you read this far, you liked it), check out my other stories I have as now: The Incident (Powerpuff Girls) and Princess Tournament: Fight to the Death (Disney Princesses). Those are a bit darker than this one, though, so be warned.**

** Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing! I'm finally and officially done with Alight, and I can move on to other things.**

**P.S. I stuck a bonus chapter on the end because I had written it and didn't have anywhere else to dump it. I liked it, and I hope you do too :)**


	22. Bonus Chapter

**Bonus Chapter**

Anna sat on her sister's bed for the next several hours. It would be expected that, after a while, all the entries of Elsa's diary would start swimming together, and Anna would want to stop reading. However, this was not remotely the case. It was evident that Elsa wrote in her diary far less frequently than most would with such a journal, which meant that there was always something worth reading on the page. Some entries, in particular, stuck out like icicles.

• • •

_Dear Anna, _

_ Happy birthday, first of all. You are fifteen years old now, I think. Fifteen! What an exciting year it must be for you. I wouldn't know, of course. All my years are pretty much the same. But you will get to do things, so many things, now that you're fifteen. I can only imagine how happy you must be._

_ In case you've forgotten, you knocked on my door today. Naturally, I couldn't come out. I don't think I ever can, for your safety. But I did wish you a very happy birthday. I think you found that inadequate, and I don't blame you. It was. I don't even know what you look like, for crying out loud, and I'm supposed to celebrate… you? How does a person even do that? Celebrate the fact that someone was born, I mean._

_ This is kind of a downer, which is why I'm not telling you this now, on your actual birthday. Hopefully it's not your birthday when you do actually read this._

_ I can't understand how someone is supposed to celebrate the fact that I was born. What have I done to deserve that? Almost kill you? Sometimes… I think it would be better if I was never born._

_ You would have been safe. Always. You wouldn't have had to worry about me being all locked up in my room, or freezing your head off, for that matter. Neither would mom or dad. Everyone's lives would have been so perfect without me. If I was out of the equation entirely._

_ I'm going to be brutally honest here, Anna. You're the only reason I haven't 'taken myself out of the equation,' if you will. I know I always sound annoyed when you try and get me to leave my room, and you always sound frustrated or sad when I reject you. As you should. But really, I'm not annoyed at all. Every time you ask to play with me, it reminds me that you care about me. You actually care that I live on as your big sister. Thank you._

_ Keep on knocking,_

_ Elsa_

• • •

_Dear Anna,_

_ I am freaking out right now, Anna. There's not even a week left. I'm getting married._

_ Of course I'm getting married, Anna. I'm eighteen. That's when these things are supposed to happen. But not for me! I can't get married! Who knows how the guy will be? What if he's a jerk? What if he makes me do things to hurt you or dad or mom? Or what if he's a nice guy, and I hurt him?_

_ Oh, Anna, there are so many 'what if's. You know why? I've never even met the guy before! I know they can't help it, because it's tradition, but mom and dad are marrying me off to a complete stranger. All I know about him is that he is Prince Erik of Fordane. That's literally it._

_ Anna, I'm scared. I have no idea what's going to happen next, and that terrifies me more than anything else. I have no control over what's about to happen. Marriage and all, I mean. I have no clue and no power; things will just happen around me. Like what happened to you after I shot you in the head. I had no control after that point on whether you would live or die. It terrified me. I hated it._

_ In the same way, I dread the thought of my wedding. It's in less than a week. You'll get to see me, for a change. Very briefly, but still, you will. But I won't be comfortable, or happy, or remotely at ease. I'll be spending all my energy concealing my ice, and even more either loving or hating or fearing the groom._

_ Wish me peace, or luck at least,_

_ Elsa_

• • •

_Dear Anna,_

_ Please disregard my last entry. I have no idea what the heck I was saying. Married some Prince Erik of Fordane? I checked; that guy doesn't even exist. Fordane only has one heir, and his name is not Erik. I'm not married. At least, I didn't get married like I said I would._

_I don't remember getting married, so I don't think I ever did. I remember being apprehensive about something, and talking to someone in a way that made me feel relieved… but I don't remember to whom I was talking. I'm afraid to ask mom and dad, because maybe I was doing something behind their backs and had my memory wiped clean in the process, somehow. Who knows? You might, but you probably don't. I couldn't ask you now without being a burden on your life, anyways._

_Nothing else has changed, then. I'm still in my room, as always, trying not to freeze the world over. If you'll pardon the pun, I'm keeping my cool. You like puns, don't you? I always imagine you as the type of person who would like puns._

_Stay happy,_

_Elsa_

• • •

_Dear Anna,_

_I want to build a snowman, Anna, I really do. I want to give you the warmest hug you've ever had, and build a snowman with you, and everything. Especially now that mom and dad are dead. _

_They're really gone, aren't they? You're not just telling me things – not that I think you would. It's just that… there's no one left. Not a single person left to protect you, and Arendelle, from me. I have to pull myself together all on my own._

_That, and they are… you know… parents. I had a list of three people that I really loved, and who loved me back, and who I would never want to be hurt. Now that list is one person long. You, Anna, are really the only human being that matters to me, myself included._

_I don't have to tell you that I'm sad. You know that for yourself. You don't have to tell me that you're sad, either; I heard you through the door. I heard every word, Anna. Every word you've ever said to me, I heard. I want to make sure you know that. _

_I really want to build a snowman with you, Anna. More than any other thing in the world, except one – keeping you safe. Like you're right out there for me, Anna, I'm right in here for _you_. For your sake. _

_But I have to confess something. No matter how much I tell myself that locking myself up is for the greater good, I can't help but want to actually be your sister, and spend time with you. I just don't want you to go away before I can-_

Anna couldn't read the rest of the entry. It was all a streaky mess from then on, as if Elsa had smeared the ink with her hands. Any tears would have been solid ice; they couldn't have done anything. Anna glanced to the backside of the previous page and noticed a patch of ink symmetrical to the one on the actual diary page. Elsa must have unknowingly rubbed her hand on the page, and she must have closed it while the ink was still wet.

• • •

_Dear Anna, _

_ Remember a couple years ago (at least from the time that I am writing this) when I told you I was scared, about a marriage that was never even going to happen? Well, now I'm actually scared. My coronation is tomorrow._

_ Of course, you know it's tomorrow. I can hear your excitement a mile away, and it crushes me to think about it. For the first time ever since mom and dad died, I'll have to go out in the world… and not expose anything. My ice, I mean. How am I supposed to contain it in front of a crowd of thousands of people? My powers grow stronger by the day, and I feel like I'm going to spill it all tomorrow like a sack of beans._

_ I don't want to let it go. Everyone will find out. Even you will know, and then no one will be safe. I can't just lock myself up after e secret is out. I could seriously hurt someone… like I did to you so many years ago. I don't want that to have to happen. I really don't._

_ Oh Anna, what am I going to do? … Do you want to build a snowman? I wish that's all I had to worry about._

_ I've been writing so much about me lately, with my coronation and all, that I want to talk about you now. Just because I have to conceal doesn't mean that you do. Hopefully, I won't get in the way of letting you enjoy the wider world – freely._

_ Live life well,_

_ Elsa_

• • •

_ Dear Anna,_

_ Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I don't even know what to say to you anymore, because you know everything now. You know about my ice powers, and about how dangerous they could have been, and about how much I love you. And I know things, too, that you taught me. Like how to thaw, or see the good in myself again. There's really nothing left to say, is there?_

_ Is there?_

_ I mean, today's been a long day. Ending the Great Freeze (granted, I caused it) really was quite draining. I reconnected with Erik, whom I had forgotten about entirely for three whole years. But here I am, writing to you about seemingly nothing. I thought that we had shared everything we needed to in person. But apparently, I still feel like I'm hiding something from you. Or the other way around. I don't know what, though._

_ I think I'm waiting for you to tell me something. And believe be, you'll know my reaction, whether it be in person or through text._

_ Open up,_

_ Elsa_

• • •

Anna would have kept reading if she could. She was getting into the juicy part of the diary, what Anna considered subconsciously as 'modern Elsa history.' In other words, the time passed since the Great Freeze. She would have kept reading, if it wasn't for a burly man bursting very suddenly through the doors.

"There you are!" Kristoff said in a voice that was startlingly loud to Anna. She had, after all, spent the last few hours in perfect silence. The noise was a shock.

"What?" Anna jumped up from the bed and found herself awkwardly standing with a knee on the bed and a foot on the ground. Elsa's diary dangled suspiciously from her hands, still open to the page she was on.

"Everybody's looking for you!" Kristoff began gesticulating wildly with his hands. "You have queenly duties and stuff to do now, Anna! I think you're about an hour late for…" Kristoff slowed down as he moved closer to Anna. He pointed to the book in Anna's hands. "Is that what I think it is?"

"What do you think it is?" Anna tried to cover up the book a little with her sleeve. It was futile.

"Elsa's diary?" Kristoff asked, and then realized Anna's affirmation. "You've been reading her diary?" He sounded surprised more than anything else. "Why?"

"It's addressed to me," Anna responded simply. She didn't want to elaborate. She just wanted to get back to reading.

Kristoff held up his hands. Anna had come off as defensive and cross to Kristoff. "Okay, okay, Anna. This is obviously between Elsa and you; it's none of my business. Anyways, you have to sort through the mail and all. You know, to help Elsa out."

Anna just stood where she was, gripping Elsa' diary.

Kristoff held out his hand. "C'mon, I'll walk with you to Elsa's study. You've got a fat stack of mail waiting for you there." He couldn't tell if Anna's expressionless face was due to being lost in thought or being lost in sadness, so he smiled to cheer her up just incase.

Anna internally sighed and put Elsa's diary back on her side desk. She would have to finish it some other time. Now, she had to stop listening to Elsa from the past, and start helping out Elsa from the present.


End file.
